Chapter 2 –Face the Music

Blaine and Kurt tried to avoid the inevitable. First, they had no idea who stayed over last night. Second, they knew everyone could hear. Third, they knew Kurt’s parents would be downstairs waiting to talk to them. They knew they were loud. “Kurt, I think we need to get up. It’s almost 10:00. We are going to have to face them sooner or later. I think sooner is better, that way they can calm down before dinner time when we will have to show our faces for an extended period of time.”

“Ugh. I don’t want to Blaine. We are engaged and we are sexually active. It should be okay, right.” Kurt knew he was reaching, but he couldn’t help it.

“We’re still under your dad’s roof though, and we still need to be respectful of him. I understand him and we were probably wrong to do that last night.”

“Blaine. We were just alone for 10 days in Paris. What did he think we were doing every night there?” Kurt sat up and was rubbing Blaine’s arm. “I love you and I just can’t stand this. I feel like we’re never going to be alone again. School starts soon and I won’t be able to see you enough. Everything worries me, but mostly, the not knowing how we’re going to make this year work with the distance.”

Blaine reached up to cup Kurt’s face with his hand and he caressed his cheek. “I promised you something, didn’t I?” Kurt nodded. “Then trust me. My plan needs us to go downstairs and face the music and admit we were wrong. Then I can honestly move forward with my plan. I love you too and I promised you forever. That includes this school year.”

“Fine. Let’s skip showers and get this over with. You never know what might happen if we get in the shower together again.” Kurt winked at Blaine as he got out of bed and pulled on a pair of pajama pants and one of Blaine’s tee shirt.

“I love when you wear my clothes, Babe.” Blaine smiled brightly.

“I know you do. Why do you think I do it? Now, I guess let’s go.” Blaine got up and grabbed his pajama pants and a tee shirt.

They were hand in hand as they descended the stairs. Surprisingly, the boys seemed to still be playing Xbox. Or, at least somebody was playing. They heard Burt and Carole in the kitchen and after looking at each other and taking a deep breath, they entered the kitchen together hand in hand. Burt glanced up from the paper, with a coffee in hand. “Good morning boys. Did you have a good night’s… uh..sleep?” There was a slight smile on his lips and Carole looked to be hiding her face. “Have a seat boys.”

They said nothing and took a seat at the table as Carole brought them plates, some fruit and toast to the table.

“Get something to eat boys. Coffee?”

Kurt responded. “Yes please.” Kurt looked nervous about what his dad might say.

Burt was watching the two of them out of the corner of his eye. Blaine instinctively took the fruit and spooned some on to Kurt’s plate, before serving himself. Carole set two cups down and Blaine immediately took one and handed it to Kurt first. It didn’t even faze him that Blaine always thought of him first. Carole noticed. “Blaine Honey, Kurt can do it himself, you know.”

Blaine blushed because he didn’t even realize he was doing it. He was so used to it after spending the entire summer with Kurt. He always let Kurt go first or served Kurt first. “Oh….” He didn’t really know how to respond so he stopped there.

Burt laughed. “Relax boys.” Blaine continued with handing Kurt toast and a knife. Kurt smiled at him. Blaine thought to himself, ‘this is why I do it. I do it because I get the chance to see that precious smile that I love’. Blaine smiled back.

“So, Dad, we know you probably have something to say to us this morning, but we want to at least apologize.” Kurt could barely look his dad in the eye.

“Well, Kurt. I think both of you need to realize that I understand that you have urges. I know that you, uh, that you have been, you know, having..or doing.”

Carole laughed out loud. “Burt, Honey, you can say the word. Boys, we know that you have sex.”

“Yeah.” Burt took a deep breath and sighed. This was always hard to talk about with Kurt. “Well, I just want you both to know that I get it. I also understand that you are in love.”

Blaine interrupted. “Burt. We’re sorry. We knew we were loud last night. I think we just let ourselves go a little and probably should have thought about this more. We were so used to being alone at the Condo and …” Blaine took a deep breath before continuing. “We were wrong.”

Burt put the paper away and folded his hands on the table. Carole sat down and put her hand on Burt’s arm smiling. “Okay. Thank you for saying that you were wrong boys. You were. What you do, I totally understand. You both are committed and engaged and I know it’s going to happen, but it’s kind of embarrassing for us to hear it and probably for others too.” Burt smiled and Kurt knew they were forgiven. “That said. Pace yourselves boys, you guys are getting married next year. You've got to leave some mystery, don’t you?” Burt laughed. Blaine and Kurt looked at each other with questioning eyes. “Fine. I guess not, but take the time to enjoy each other as people too.”

Kurt smiled at Blaine and reached out to squeeze his hand. “Thanks Dad. We do enjoy each other’s company. We haven’t lost that part of us. We were best friends before and I still love talking to Blaine. We talk a lot before going to sleep at night.”

Burt pushed his chair out. “And quit doing that Blaine.” Blaine scrunched his forehead questioning. “Quit serving Kurt first. You sat here and served him food first and offered him the first coffee. He can do it himself. Plus, you’ll regret it. He’ll expect you to do it forever and my guess is that’s going to be a long time for you. You’re too young to enter a life of servitude.”

“Oh.” Blaine chuckled because he did always put Kurt first. He never wanted to let Kurt down like he had with Paul. He never wanted to admit it to anyone, but he still harbored guilt for everything that happened. “I won’t Burt. But he does deserve some pampering after last night.”

Kurt coughed up a piece of fruit. “I think that’s my cue to leave.” Burt shook his head as he stood up. “I’ve got to go to the shop anyway and check on things. I let Charlie open up today.”

Blaine stood up and followed Burt to the door. “Burt, can I talk to you?”

“Sure Blaine. What do you have on your mind?”

Blaine glanced at Kurt. “It’s really something that I don’t want to bring up with Kurt around. Can I come up to the shop in say an hour and a half?”

“Are you sure about not letting Kurt know? Secret’s aren’t a good way to start out.”

“Kurt will understand when I explain it to him, but I need some advice before I know how I’m going to handle it with Kurt.”

“Okay. How are you going to get away from Kurt? And, it’s probably not good to keep secrets.” Kurt looked at them both, strangely wondering what might be going on.

“Well, Burt, it’s about the school year. It’s really important and I really could use your opinion and agreement. It would mean a lot to me.”

“Okay, son.” Because, even though Blaine had his parents back in his life, Burt would always think of Blaine as his son too.

“Thanks Burt. See you in a little while.”

Blaine returned to the table. “What was that all about?” Kurt’s head cocked to the side suspiciously.

“Just had a question to ask your dad. You know, I still trust him and want his advice.” Blaine was lying and Kurt could tell, but he didn’t say anything yet. “Are you done eating? I thought we could pick up Rachel and go shopping for school.”

Kurt was still bitter about the arrangements for the coming year. “Like you will need anything but your Dalton uniform.” Kurt turned to walk upstairs. Blaine took his hand.

“Kurt, we have weekends and we can meet after school a few times a week. There’s Skype or Facetime. I love you and you know we can make this work.”

“I’m just…. Forget it.” Kurt stopped mid-sentence.

“Kurt, let’s just get ready and call Rachel.” He and Blaine made their way back upstairs and into the bathroom. Kurt turned on the shower and Blaine stripped.

Kurt turned into Blaine hugging him tight. “Babe, wasn’t the shower enough for you last night?”

“It was, and there are still people here and that’s why we are going to shower. Nothing else.” Kurt stuck his bottom lip out to pout. “None of that Kurt Hummel. We just had to spend an awkward breakfast apologizing to your Dad. I think we can be good for a few hours.”

---

Blaine and Kurt finally made their way back to the family room to find Puck and Finn on the couch in the middle of another game. “Geez, do you guys do anything else?” Kurt asked.

There was no movement, but Finn responded. “We’re too tired to move and we need to practice because we lost to all of Blaine’s friends last night. By the way, you just missed them. They just left.”

Kurt couldn’t believe they didn’t sleep. “You guys stayed up all night?”

Puck laughed. “Like we would be able to get any sleep with all the screaming going on.” Kurt blushed.

“Whatever, Puck.” Kurt could only brush off the teasing because Puck was being truthful.

“Blaine, you must be a dynamo in bed, dude. The noises that came out of this guy were ..um.. well, let’s just say they were loud.” Puck glanced up at the two of them with that knowing look.

Finn added. “And with Burt and Carole in the house too. Dude, I am surprised that Blaine is still alive. Burt must have been pissed at you guys doing that in his house.” Puck and Finn both laughed.

“Okay. Enough. Is Rachel doing anything today?”

“She said she was going to go school shopping.”

---

“Perfect!” Kurt dialed her number. “Rachel, it’s Kurt. Let’s go shopping! We’ll be there in 15 minutes.”
Kurt was so excited. Blaine loved to see Kurt happy. They left to pick up Rachel.

When they got to the mall, Blaine looked at his watch. The timing was perfect. “Kurt, I’m going to drop you off. I have an errand to run at the bank before it closes. I’ll meet you guys in the food court? I need about an hour to get there and back and the line you know.”

Kurt thought nothing of it. “Sure Blaine.”

“Hey Babe? Get me a new outfit. Something you’d want to see on me, okay?”

“You know I love dressing you.” Kurt leaned in for a kiss and then he stepped out the door taking Rachel’s hand as they walked to the doors at the Lima Mall.

“Pick something good!”

---

Blaine pulled into Hummel Tires and Lube and walked straight into Burt’s office. He was waiting for him.
“Blaine. So what was so secretive that you had to meet me here at the shop?”

“I want to talk about the upcoming school year and Kurt.”

“Yeah.” Burt nodded his head with concern. “I’ll be honest with you Blaine. Kurt seems really upset about the likelihood that you boys will be at separate schools. I’ve had a few talks with him about it and I think he understands, but you know Kurt. When he gets an idea in his head, it’s tough for him to let it go. I just want to make sure you both take this relationship seriously. I told Kurt, there will be time for both of you to be together. Plenty of time.”

Blaine was worried Burt would not go for it after that little speech. “That’s what I want to talk to you about. I don’t live in Lima’s school district. I talked to the school and they have no policy for open enrollment, so I can’t just go in and pay to go to school there and….”

Burt was shocked. He cut Blaine off as soon as he understood where Blaine was going with it. “Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Wait a minute Blaine. Are you seriously considering leaving Dalton? I don’t think your mom and dad would like that. It’s your future son, your education.” Burt shook his head because he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Kurt would never let you throw your future away. Frankly, neither will I.”

“Burt, I’m most definitely not throwing my future away. Kurt is a very important part of my future.” Blaine stood there with a conviction that was impressive. He never faltered. He definitely carried the air that his family did. Burt knew that no matter what he thought, Blaine had already made up his mind. Burt had to tell Blaine the right thing and let the chips fall where they may. “I already have the grades to get into a good school. I’m not worried about that. I want this. I don’t want to be away from him just as much as Kurt doesn’t want to be away from me.”

“Sounds like your mind is made up then.” Burt sighed in defeat.

“It is. Burt, we are a couple. We are committed. We are engaged to be married. I won’t budge and I really want your blessing, for Kurt’s sake. I don’t want to have to sneak around this year. That’s what we would both end up doing, you know.”

Burt knew Blaine was right, but still stuck to his guns. “And your parents? Do they know?”

“I think they suspect.”

“So how do you think they’ll react?”

“I hope they’ll support my decision. I’m not ruining my future. I’m trying to balance it. With wedding planning, college applications and schoolwork, it would benefit us to be together. You know that, right?”

“I know, Blaine. I just don’t think Kurt would ever forgive himself if you gave up your future because you wanted to be with him.”

“Burt, I was not this Blaine before Kurt. The Blaine you see today. Kurt made me this. I will never make it without him. Everything I do is for our future. Everything I do is to make Kurt proud of me.” Blaine looked down smiling. “I know it sounds like a childish dream, but it’s true for us. You always think I saved Kurt, but Kurt saved me too.”

Burt sighed because Blaine was being so mature about all of this and he had a point about the sneaking around. Burt would not like that and it would most definitely happen because they would be apart so much. He wasn’t really giving in, but it would be better to have some control by supporting them rather than drive them away.

“Okay, it’s not like I will have a huge choice in the matter. So, what do you need from me and Carole?”

“I want to buy a condo in that neighborhood around the block from your house.”

“Okay. Still need more information son.”

“I want Kurt to move in with me.” Blaine took a deep breath and met Burt’s eyes. He knew he had to be strong and show a strong front for Burt to buy this. It was a hefty sell in Blaine’s mind. Kurt was his son, his flesh and blood and he is asking to basically shack up with his son.

“Well, I can say I’m not surprised about this. The two of you have been inseparable since the trip and you practically live together under my roof.” Burt rubbed his forehead. “I need to think about this, but in the meantime, I need to know that JR and your mom are okay with this. I will only support this as long as everyone is on the same page. I need to know that both of your parents are on board with this. It really doesn’t work any other way.”

Blaine leapt toward Burt and wrapped his arms around him. “Thanks Burt. I’ll let you know as soon as I talk to my parents. If all goes well, we’ll start school, in separate places. That will give me time to say good bye to the Warblers.” Blaine was about to leave but decided to tell Burt some things they had planned. “You know Burt, Kurt and I are going to go to New York to visit, NYU and Columbia for me and Pratt and Parsons for him. We are both applying to NYU, but Kurt wants to go into Fashion Design so Pratt and Parsons are the best. When we come back from New York, I was going to surprise Kurt by driving to our place.”

Burt smiled because Blaine and Kurt had been planning their future. It was so clear when Blaine spoke that they planned their future together. Somewhere in the midst of glee club, friends, sex and just being a teen, the boys were planning a life together. A future together. Blaine was the best kid for his son and Burt knew it. “Okay kid. I get it. Talk to your parents and let me know what they think.” Blaine turned to walk away and Burt stood up.

“And Blaine?” Burt took the few steps to stand directly in front of Blaine. “Thank you. Thank you for respecting me and my son.” Burt wrapped his arms around Blaine and hugged him tightly. He loved Blaine like a son.

Blaine gripped Burt just as tightly. “No thank you Burt. Thank you for giving him to me.”

“Yeah kid.” Burt nodded because he didn’t really have a choice. He didn’t give Kurt to Blaine. Kurt gave himself to Blaine. Completely.

Burt knew his son would soon leave him. He thought he would be sad, and he was a little sad, but he was happier for Kurt. His baby that seemed to find a man that made him happy and that he could make happy. What more could Burt want for his son?

Blaine breathed a sigh of relief as he drove back to the Lima Mall. That wasn’t so bad, but now his mom and dad were next on his list. For all the plans to work, he had to get his parents to agree in the next few days. The condo was available and he needed to make an offer on it. School started two weeks from Monday and they were leaving to visit colleges in New York City in four weeks. He really wanted to surprise Kurt when they came home from the college visit trip.

---

Blaine texted Kurt from the food court as he ordered coffee for the three of them. He sat and waited for them to get there. Rachel had a few bags and so did Kurt. Blaine brightened up as soon as Kurt noticed him. “Hey. Why are you so happy? Did you come into some money?” Kurt was joking of course because he was the same Blaine. Kurt never expected anything from Blaine and Blaine didn’t really flaunt his riches.

“Missed you. Just glad to see you, Babe.”

“Blaine. You were gone an hour.. and .. I love you too.” Kurt wanted to kiss him, but knew it wasn’t socially acceptable in Mid-Ohio, so he just flashed the smile that he knew Blaine loved and sat next to him immediately moving his foot close to Blaine’s. The tiny connection meant everything to both the boys.

Rachel spoke up. “It’s terrible that you both feel like you have to hide your love in public. Someday this country is going to wake up and accept people for who they are and not color or sexual orientation.”

“We can only hope.” Blaine answered longingly.

“So, you guys have two more weeks before school starts. What are your plans?”

“I just want to spend as much time with Blaine as possible because once school starts it will be close to impossible to see him.” Kurt was clearly still upset every time he talked about it. “We’ll be living for the weekends.”

“It will be hard, but you too are perfect for each other. You guys are an awesome couple and it’ll work out. I know it will. Let’s go see what Finn and Puck are up to. I hope they aren’t still sitting on the couch playing Xbox.”

---

Sure enough, Puck and Finn were in front of the TV, but they weren’t playing Xbox. At some point in the last few hours, they gave into sleep. Rachel and Kurt were going through everything Kurt bought which gave Blaine time to call his mom and dad. Blaine went into the garage to call because he didn’t want to risk anyone hearing, especially Kurt.

“Hey Dad. I was wondering if you and mom would be available to talk. I really need to talk to you about something and it’s really important. Are you going to be home anytime in the next few days?” Blaine anticipated an answer.

“We’ll actually be home tomorrow until Tuesday. Then, I’m sorry to say I’ll be in court in Texas after that.”

“Can we meet tomorrow?”

“Of Course Blaine. Is it something you’d like to talk to us about right now?”

“No. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Will Kurt be with you? It might be nice to meet for dinner. We haven’t seen both of you in a while. I’d like to know how Paris was.”

“Yes. But I want to talk to you in private also.”

“Sounds serious Blaine.”

“It’s important, more than serious dad. See you tomorrow?”

“Sure. Let meet at Giovanni’s for dinner at 6:00, then we can go back to the house and have that talk.”

“Okay. Thanks dad!”

Blaine was sure that he could sell his parents on this, but it would take the correct presentation. There were noises coming from the kitchen and sure enough, Finn and Puck woke up and were scavenging for food. “Hey guys.”

“Blaine. We didn’t even know that anyone was home.” Finn stopped his desperate search for food long enough to acknowledge Blaine.

“We got home about a half hour ago. Rachel is up in Kurt’s room.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. We went to the mall a few hours ago. Back to school shopping.”

Puck turned to Finn. “Dude, I gotta go. I’ve been here almost 24 hours and I need real food and real sleep. See you tomorrow.”

“When Rachel is ready, do you think you could take her home? We picked her up so she’ll still need a ride to get home.”

“Sure. No problem.” Finn settled on some cereal to snack on. “Blaine grabbed the milk from the fridge and met Finn at the kitchen table.”

“So you guys had fun last night with the Warblers?”

“Yeah, it was a blast. I like those guys a lot. It’s too bad Wes and David are going to college. The Warblers will be a different group without them.” Blaine thought how different they will be when he leaves too.

Blaine nodded. “They are all great. I’ll miss Wes and David greatly. They were my best friends at Dalton. They got me through a lot of things. Dalton and the Warblers won’t be the same without them.”
“So, what are you going to do about school?” Finn was definitely going somewhere with it.
“Your best friends are gone. A new counsel is in place for the Warblers and Kurt is here. It’s going to be hard isn’t it?”

“Yeah. It will be, but I’m working on something.” Blaine stood to go back up to Kurt’s room.

“I’ll send Rachel down for you Finn.”

Blaine thought in his head. This has to work. There’s no way that this won’t be ok. I have the answer to all their concerns. He opened the door to see Kurt holding up a pair of dark jeans and a button down. “Hey Baby. I bought this for you. These jeans will look so good on your butt and this shirt. Well, it’s plain, but it balances out how interesting you are and your look.”

Blaine smiled big. “Well, then I’m in love. The clothes are pretty nice too.” He winked and Kurt’s face blushed. He was perfect.