=^..^=

Coming back to Ohio was not something Kurt liked to do. His family was there and he loved seeing them, but every moment spent there was a struggle to hold on to the self-confident (for the most part), happy man he had become. Ohio was exhausting.

He had hopes that this year might be different, though. He and Blaine were visiting for five days over Christmas and even though Blaine had met his family before, this time it was as his boyfriend and the thought sent a thrill down Kurt's spine. He had been very glad that Bev was out of the country when the dummies were left at his gate, because there was no way she would have let him go to Lima if she'd been in town. He'd had a hard enough time convincing Blaine that they should still go. It was only when it was discovered that the intruder had somehow disabled the security camera on the gate that Blaine decided it was best to get out of town for a while.

Thankfully, with Lynn's help they had already put out some misinformation the week before to lead people into believing that he and Blaine were going to a warm, tropical local for the holidays. They had then set things up to get a ride to Fort Wayne, Indiana on a private jet belonging to one of Lynn's other clients who was heading to the Midwest.

While they were gone, crews would be hard at work adding new video cameras to the entire fence line at the house and beefing up other security features.

It was just over an hour's drive from Fort Wayne to Lima, so once they landed they rented a car big enough to carry all of their luggage and hit the road. As they reached the highway, Kurt decided to bring up a matter he had been avoiding up until that point. "Do your parents still live around here? Would you want to visit them while we're in Lima?"

"I-I don't know where they live, honestly. And even if I did I…I think it's best that we just leave it alone."

"Got it. Leaving it alone." Kurt smiled to show that he understood and reached over to turn on the radio, wondering if he would be able to find anything except country music.

Finally, they reached Burt and Carole's house, nestled at the end of a cul-de-sac on a quiet street on the outskirts of Lima. Kurt had told his family about the change in his relationship with Blaine over Skype (he thought his dad's sarcastic "Well, color me shocked!" had been a little unnecessary) and they had seemed happy, but he still let out a sigh of relief when they greeted Blaine as a member of the family as soon as they walked in the door. Blaine held out his hand to Burt for a handshake, but found himself pulled in for a hug and a hearty man-pat on the back instead (Kurt may have snickered at the shocked expression on Blaine's face, but he would never tell him that). While Blaine was being engulfed in a similar embrace from Carole, Burt grabbed Kurt's suitcase, which had been dropped on the porch, and carried it up to Kurt's old room. He returned and carried Blaine's up to the same room. He didn't say a word, but Kurt took that as the ultimate acceptance of their relationship.

The rest of the day was a leisurely one spent at home. They caught up with Burt and Carole over dinner and then spent the rest of the night making and decorating sugar cookies to take to their neighbors on Christmas. Blaine commandeered the bow shaped cookie cutter and proceeded to painstakingly frost each cookie to look like different patterned bow ties. Kurt went the more elaborate route and made an army of gingerbread men and women that he designed different ensembles for using piped icing, candies, and colored sugar.

Just as Kurt was finishing up a batch of fashionable asymmetrical sweater wearing gingerbread men, Blaine reached over and stole a Red Hot candy off of one of them. Blaine apologized when Kurt protested and he vowed to return the pilfered treat. He popped the candy into his mouth and reached over the counter to pull Kurt towards him. When Kurt finally pulled back from the kiss he had the stolen Red Hot on his tongue.

"Mm…somehow I don't think I should put this back on the cookie," he said as the taste of cinnamon burst on his tongue. In retaliation he reached out with his piping bag and squeezed out a blob of frosting onto the tip of Blaine's nose. The cookie making quickly devolved into a frosting war after that, with Carole and Burt wisely retreating to the living room to avoid being collateral damage.

=^..^=

Kurt showed Blaine around Lima the next day. He avoided the high school, but they saw Burt's shop and the mall and the thrift stores that had helped Kurt dress like a fashionista even when he was younger. After seeing the limited sights the town had to offer, they finally stopped at the Lima Bean, where they got coffee and sat by the window watching the last minute shoppers bustle past.

Blaine had been checking his cell phone all day and finally, after he looked at it one too many times, Kurt called him on it. "Are you expecting an important call or something? Is it about the stalker?" he asked worriedly.

"No, no! Nothing like that, I —" Blaine's explanation was cut short by the buzzing of his phone. He looked down and saw the message that he'd been waiting for. "Come on, I have a surprise for you."

They got back in the car and Blaine used the GPS on his phone to find the spot he was looking for. Kurt's expression was less than pleased when they pulled up in front of McKinley High School

"Blaine, I really don't want to be here," he bit out. "There's a reason this wasn't on the tour."

"Don't worry, we're not going in. I just…" Blaine looked down the street. "There it is. Come on."

He tugged Kurt out of the car and they moved to stand in front of it just as a vehicle with a strange contraption on the top drove by. As it passed, Blaine swept Kurt into his arms, dipped him, and kissed him passionately for at least a minute. When he let him up, Kurt was breathless and obviously confused. "And to what do I owe that pleasure?"

Blaine grinned and stuffed his hands into his pockets to warm them up, wishing that he had worn his gloves. "That was the Google mapping truck."

Kurt tilted his head questioningly. "The…?"

"The Street View maps on Google? They send this car around to get the images and it captures everything in the area. There's a blog I found that posts messages from people tracking it around the world and I learned it was going to be in Lima while we were here, so I've been waiting for it to get to the high school."

Kurt still looked confused. "Why?"

"Because now you have another permanent legacy here as part of the map of McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio. Or at least until they re-do the images. Every person who views this map will see you. And you're French kissing your wonderful boyfriend."

The only movement from Kurt was the little visible puffs of breath that escaped his mouth. Blaine thought at first that Kurt hadn't liked his surprise, but then his face broke out into the biggest grin ever. "I think that might be the best thing I've ever heard." He wrapped his arms around Blaine's neck and pounced on him for another kiss and Blaine forgot all about his cold hands.

=^..^=

The three days before Christmas went quickly and Blaine could well and truly say he'd had a great time in Lima. He and Kurt had spent most of their time with Kurt's family, but took one night as a 'date' night and went to a movie at the local theater. After the movie, they met a few of Kurt's old friends from school for drinks, where Blaine finally got to meet the famous Mercedes that Kurt talked about so much and also met Mike and Tina Chang, who were visiting from Chicago with their new baby. They spent a great evening together and Blaine heard a lot of stories about Kurt that had him nearly falling off of his chair with laughter.

Kurt retaliated by telling everyone about Cooper and, to Blaine's horror, the entire table serenaded him with a perfectly harmonized version of the dreaded credit rating jingle. Blaine groaned playfully and feigned covering his ears while declaring his intention of getting revenge on each and every one of them.

The talk of Cooper reminded him that he had left a pre-Christmas voice mail for his brother before they left L.A., but his call hadn't yet been returned. That was okay, though; Cooper wasn't great about remembering holidays, but he always called. Eventually.

As they were leaving the restaurant, Blaine heard Kurt's name called from a table they had just passed. Blaine protectively stepped between Kurt and the voice, his eyes searching for who had spoken.

"Jacob, it's…nice to see you. How have you been?" Kurt asked, his tone more resigned than anything, which made Blaine relax a little.

"I'm most excellent," the man with unfortunately frizzy hair and a nasally voice smirked as he eyed Kurt and Blaine. "Congratulations on everything that's been happening for you. Who would have guessed that one of McKinley's most slushied would end up nominated for a Golden Globe?"

Blaine put his hand on Kurt's back, offering his silent support, but Kurt had the situation covered. He looked down his nose at the man and smiled coldly. "Yes, well it was good to see you, but we have a plans we're late for, so if you'll excuse us."

They began to walk away when Jacob called out to them again. "Did the stuff I sent help your ghost writer?"

Kurt's back stiffened beneath Blaine's hand as he turned back. "Ghost writer?"

Jacob looked delighted that had stopped Kurt from leaving. "Yeah, he contacted me about, I don't know, about three weeks ago? I sent all the info I had. Not sure why he couldn't just get it all from you, though."

"What are you talking about?" Kurt asked as he exchanged a worried glance with Blaine.

Jacob looked nervous as he seemed to realize that Kurt wasn't happy with what he was saying. "I'm the owner and managing editor of a cutting-edge entertainment blog that has done a piece or two on you and I got an email earlier this month from a guy saying he was a ghost writer that you'd hired to write your auto-biography. He wanted me to send whatever info I had on your life here in Lima — school photos, yearbooks, local stories, you know."

Blaine stepped closer and stared down at him. "Who was this guy? Did you talk to him? Do you still have the email?"

"Uhh…his name was John, I think. John Smith." Jacob cowered back against the wall, intimidated by Blaine's glare. "I never spoke with him, just emailed. I still have the address, but I sent him mail last week to see if he wanted to be my inside source on…I-I mean, to see if I could be of any more help and my mail bounced back as undeliverable."

"I need that address now." Blaine's tone had Jacob fumbling for this phone to pull up his email. He opened the mail in question and Blaine snatched the phone from his hands and read it through quickly. He forwarded it to a generically named account he kept for work purposes and returned the phone.

"Jacob, I don't have a ghost writer, so if you get contacted again I'd appreciate it if you didn't share any more information on me," Kurt smiled, though Blaine could see that the smile didn't reach his eyes.

"Of course, of course. Us McKinley alums have to stick together, after all. Speaking of which, I'd love to get an exclusive interview for my blog."

Kurt stared him down for a second. "If you don't post anything about the ghost writer or this conversation then…I'll give you an interview in February. Deal?"

Jacob looked torn, but finally agreed.

"Well," Kurt said as they got to the car, "he ended up exactly how I would have expected. I think he was voted 'most likely to get sued for libel or served with a restraining order' in school."

Blaine maneuvered the car out onto the road and drove towards the Hummel house. "Yes, charming guy. I guess we now know how the stalker got all that information on your childhood. I can't believe he fell for that ghost writer crap. John Smith. Please."

"I can't believe my stalker is so unoriginal. Is it wrong that I'm kind of disappointed? I was hoping for a higher quality of obsessed fan."

Blaine checked the rearview mirror to make sure no one was following them. "I'll send the stalker's email address to the police and have them see what they can find, but I'm betting it's a dead end and won't help us identify who he, or she, is."

"Right." The bitterness in Kurt's voice was heavy. "We wouldn't want that lovely surprise to be ruined quite yet."

Blaine reached over and grabbed Kurt's hand, bringing it up to his mouth for a kiss before dropping their joined hands down to his thigh. He was anxious to get to Burt's house so that he could send the email and get the investigation started. He wanted to keep this away from Kurt as much as possible, though, and not ruin what was left of their visit with his parents. Who knows, maybe the stalker had left a clue behind with the email address. Maybe Santa would bring them the stalker's identity for Christmas.

=^..^=

Kurt awoke Christmas morning to the sound of Finn thundering down the stairs and the scent of cinnamon rolls baking. Finn lived in Dayton, where he was a P.E. teacher at a middle school, but since he lived alone and was in between girlfriends he had come up to Lima to stay with the family for the a few days.

Everyone gathered for a leisurely breakfast, lingering over rolls and coffee and pretending not to notice Finn's impatience. Finally, they retired to the living room and Finn played Santa, handing out the presents. Carole and Burt opened their gifts to each other first and then Finn and Kurt opened theirs from their parents. Blaine then unwrapped his first package to find a Word A Day calendar from Finn.

"Dude, I got one of these last year and thought it was really cool," Finn told him excitedly as Blaine flipped through the calendar. "Who knew there were so many words? Reading it made me feel really smart and…stuff."

"Eloquent as ever, Finn," Kurt smirked. "I don't know why you thought you needed to expand your vocabulary."

Blaine thanked Finn nicely for the gift and promised to use it every day. Next, he opened his present from Burt and Carole, which was a luxurious sweater and coordinating bow tie (picked out by Kurt, of course). "Thank you so much. I'll be the best dressed guy in L.A. Well, second best at least," he said as he draped the bow tie around his neck.

Blaine and Kurt had gotten together to give Finn a day at a football camp where he would train and play with real NFL players. Finn gave Blaine a hearty slap on the back that nearly knocked him over, smiling at him as if he thought that the idea couldn't possibly have come from Kurt (Kurt was a little offended that he would think that, even if it was true).

Kurt gave his parents plane tickets to London and information on a tour of Europe he had booked for them for the following May and Blaine followed it up (amongst the crying and protests of "It's too much") with guide books for the countries they would be visiting.

Once the excitement had died down, Blaine nudged a small box in Kurt's direction. "You're a hard man to buy for, Kurt Hummel. I knew I'd be setting myself up for failure if I attempted to pick out clothes for you, but I thought this might be a safe.

Kurt tore the wrapping paper from the box and opened it to find a crystal encrusted brooch in the shape of a phoenix that he had eyed in a recent issue of Vogue. "Blaine, I love it!"

"Maybe you can wear it to the concert."

"What concert?" Kurt asked, searching his brain for a forgotten event on his schedule.

"This one." Blaine handed him an envelope, which Kurt snatched up and opened quickly.

Kurt took one look at the envelope's contents and thought he might pass out. "Liza Minnelli? You got me tickets to a Liza Minnelli concert?"

"It's in New York on Valentine's Day. I know you probably had something else in mind for that night, but I just couldn't resist."

Suddenly Kurt was in Blaine's arms, kissing him for all he was worth, not caring for a moment that this was the first time any of his family had seen him kiss someone.

Kurt pulled back and put his hands on Blaine's shoulders. "There is nothing in the entire world that you could have gotten me that would be more perfect. I can't believe you did this. Of course, now I'm rethinking my gift to you. It's just something silly that I thought of, I'm sure you don't even want them, but I found them on eBay and…"

Kurt pushed a box towards Blaine and watched as he pulled the paper off, holding his breath as Blaine pulled back the cardboard flaps and reached inside to push the carefully arranged tissue paper aside. Blaine looked into the box and…stopped.

Blaine sat staring into the box for several seconds, no expression on his face. Kurt squirmed a little, sure that his choice had been a misfire. He bit his lip and began to brainstorm replacement gifts that might reach the epic level of Miss Liza Minnelli.

"Kurt," the broken sound of Blaine's voice quickly refocused Kurt's attention, "Are these…"

"I think I got all the right ones. I snuck in and looked at your scrapbook, so I was able to match the ones in your old room up to the ones on eBay. Do you have any idea how many different antique toy robots there are out there? Hundreds. Maybe thousands."

Tears began to glisten in Blaine's eyes, making them seem too big for his face. "They're exactly like the ones my grandfather gave me. I can't believe you remembered…"

Kurt leaned sideways and gave Blaine a gentle kiss on the lips. They stared at each other for a minute before the sound the Burt clearing his throat broke the spell.

After the presents were all unwrapped they refreshed their coffees and got cozy in the living room to watch A Christmas Story on TV (even though they had it on DVD there was just something special about watching it as it was broadcast, commercials and all). During the ads, Burt regaled them with anecdotes about how Christmas used to be before it got so commercialized. Kurt rolled his eyes at the stories and traded long-suffering looks with Finn, as they had heard all the stories before.

He was so thankful his dad was looking so healthy and happy. He looked around the room at Carole, who was wearing the sweater Burt had given her and at Finn, who was eating his third cinnamon roll, and felt a strong sense of contentment. He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and saw Blaine glance across the room to where his phone lay silently on the side-table. He looked sadly at the phone for a second before turning back to watch Finn make it an even number of sweets. His longing look as he watched Kurt's family was heartbreaking to see, but Kurt was determined to make this the best Christmas he had ever had.

=^..^=

Blaine couldn't sleep, so he slipped out of bed and padded down to the living room. He switched on the Christmas lights and sat down on the floor in front of tree, leaning back against a chair. This was how he had always imagined the perfect home to be like — rooms filled with people who loved each other and weren't afraid to show it, with music and banter filling the air.

His childhood home had never been warm and loving like Kurt's, but it had been normal to him and he had accepted it. Then he'd been sent to military school and everything had changed. He'd started at the school in March of his freshman year and hadn't thought very much of it when his parents had suggested that he not come home for spring break, that he should spend the time catching up in his classes. The real surprise had come in June, when the school administrator called Blaine into his office and told him that his parents had enrolled him in summer school and that he would be staying at the school year-round. He had called his father immediately to find out why and had been told that his parents hoped that staying at school would give Blaine the discipline and stability he needed.

It was one of the last real conversations they'd ever had.

Blaine stayed on campus or with friends for the rest of his high school years. He knew that his being gay had added to the distance between his parents and himself, but the problem in their relationship had existed long before. They had always been cold and distant, more similar to reptiles who laid eggs then left them to fend for themselves than mammals who nurtured and cared for their young.

While many people in the same situation might have acted out and taken their anger out on the world, Blaine had wisely chosen the opposite path. He'd gotten straight As, joined all the right clubs, played all the expected sports, and took up boxing and martial arts to work through his anger. He'd spent holidays and vacations with friends and was always the perfect, helpful houseguest — fun, charming, unobtrusive, and never, ever outstaying his welcome.

The next time he had seen his parents had been the day before his high school graduation. They'd arrived unannounced and taken him out to lunch, where they had gave him a check with more zeros on it than he could believe and he had immediately known it was meant as a goodbye. They hadn't stayed for the graduation ceremony and he hadn't seen them since.

Blaine knew the time would come when he would need to say goodbye to Kurt and that the time was probably sooner rather than later. Kurt was going to be a huge star with a big career ahead of him and didn't need someone like Blaine dragging him down. He would go on to find love with someone just as talented and successful as himself and Blaine would be happy for him, but just for now he wanted to bask in the warmth of Kurt's smile when he was so happy that his teeth showed and his eyes crinkled, the feel of his soft skin right where his neck and shoulder met, and the hitch in his breath when Blaine touched his lips to that sensitive spot behind his left ear. He would appreciate what he had now and not think about the future. He'd enjoy pretending he was part of a family.

He heard footsteps on the stairs and moments later Kurt appeared in the entryway, the blanket wrapped around him covering everything but his bare toes.

"I woke up and you weren't there," Kurt whispered softly. "I was worried."

"Sorry. I couldn't sleep and didn't want to wake you too." Blaine spread his legs wide and Kurt settled down between them, snuggling back against Blaine's chest and pulling the blanket over both of them. They sat quietly for a while, just enjoying the closeness and the sparkling lights. Blaine bent his head forward and rested his chin on Kurt's shoulder and tightened his arms. "Thank you for bringing me here. Merry Christmas, Kurt."

Kurt swiveled his head and placed a lingering kiss on Blaine's cheek. "Merry Christmas."