Blaine’s fingers traced lightly along the back of Kurt’s shoulder, and Kurt responded with that humming noise in the back of his throat. Blaine loved that noise, it reminded him of a cat purring, but he couldn’t say so, Kurt would get all embarrassed and then it would be months before he heard it again. So he just smiled, lying there naked and intertwined with his husband, enjoying the moment.

“I must be the luckiest person in the world,” Blaine said, stroking Kurt’s cheek lazily.

Kurt smiled in vague agreement, or perhaps in thanks, insofar as it was a compliment.

“I probably never told you this,” Blaine said, “but when you asked me to marry you, I figured that was it, I’d used up all my luck. Everything else in my life would have to be neutral to bad, because I’d already had more luck than I could possibly deserve, getting to spend the rest of my life with you. But it hasn’t been … I get you and success and performing on Broadway and fame and fortune and an amazing son and another baby to get our perfect two-kids family, and it’s just … it’s just unbelievable how lucky I’ve been.”

Kurt smiled at him. “I love you so much,” he said.

“I love you, too.”

“You know, we’re about to be raising the offspring of Rachel Berry and Jesse St. James. It’s going to be a lot less calm around here.”

Blaine’s eyes twinkled. “Do you think it’s inherent personality traits, or bad parenting?”

Kurt gave a gasp of mock outrage. “Are you casting aspersions on Hiram and LeRoy?”

“I’m just saying, you and I are some pretty kick-ass parents.”

“Agreed,” Kurt said, grinning.

They gazed at each other for a while, stupidly in love, until Blaine said, “What did you mean by ‘ground rules’? For Rachel?”

------------------------------------------------

They settled on three basic rules. They knew that Rachel would agree to them and then break them repeatedly, but at least agreeing on them in advance would give them solid ground to stand on when she objected later.

They’d told Brittany that she could be as involved as she wanted to in Colin’s life. She seemed not to think of the child as her own at all, though, and treated him exactly the same way she treated Mike and Tina’s kids. Her interaction was mainly limited to hitting the “like” button on Facebook when Kurt and Blaine posted pictures, and occasionally commenting, “He looks just like you!” Which sometimes made Kurt want to bang his head against the wall, until he reminded himself that she meant well.

They told Rachel the same thing, but with an added catch: She could be as involved as she wanted to be in her son or daughter’s life (a daughter, she still insisted), but she was not allowed to show any favoritism whatsoever for her biological child over Colin. No fancy presents if Colin didn’t get one, too. No special mother-daughter outings. Definitely no saying that she was the favorite, ever. They didn’t want Colin to feel bad that he didn’t have the same kind of connection to Rachel that his sister did. (Or brother, Kurt pointed out, but by this time the idea of a girl was well entrenched.) So, Rule Number One was no favoritism for her own child. Rachel agreed to this happily, saying that she loved Colin and didn’t want him to feel left out.

Rule Number Two was that when Rachel signed away her parental rights, that was for real. She didn’t get to have a say in any parenting decisions, no matter how much of a presence she was in the child’s life. Kurt grudgingly agreed that Rachel could express her opinion if she wanted to, because, realistically, Rachel Berry would always express her opinion no matter how out of line it was. But Kurt and Blaine would make the decisions themselves, regardless of whether Rachel agreed or not. What schools she would go to, which activities were appropriate and not, whether to let her get her ears pierced—no matter what the subject, Kurt and Blaine had the final say, not Rachel. Rachel agreed to this, too, saying she was perfectly happy to be the fun aunt, not the mother.

Rule Number Three was really a subset of Rule Number Two, but it was important enough to state explicitly: The child would not be raised Jewish. They were a secular family and Rachel was not to impose her religion on the child.

Rachel strongly objected to Rule Number Three.

“But she is Jewish,” Rachel said. “It’s not that I want to make her Jewish. She has a Jewish mother, so she’s Jewish. End of story.”

“We’re not interested in what a rabbi would say about it,” Kurt said. “It doesn’t matter, because we are not raising our kids with any religion.”

“It’s not just a religion,” Rachel said. “It’s an ethnicity. She’s Jewish whether she knows it or not. And if she looks anything like me, everyone will be able to see it. She needs to know about her heritage. She should know what it means to be Jewish, and know about the holidays and the rituals and meanings behind them. Because it’s part of who she is.”

“Maybe you could teach both of our kids about Jewish traditions, but not in a practicing religion kind of way,” Blaine suggested as a compromise. “It’s an important thing to know about, whether you’re Jewish or not. Right, Kurt?”

Kurt narrowed his eyes but said nothing.

Rachel huffed. “Blaine, she’s one of the chosen people. It’s important.”

“If it’s that important to you, Rachel, maybe you should find a Jewish family to adopt her,” Kurt said. Sometimes a threat was the only way to get Rachel to agree to something, he knew, but Blaine tensed when he said it, already completely invested in making this baby a part of their family.

Rachel glared at Kurt. “If that’s the way you feel about it,” she said, blustering.

Kurt raised an eyebrow.

Rachel sighed. “Fine. Raise her nonreligious if you must. She’ll still be Jewish deep down inside.”

Kurt smiled triumphantly, and Blaine’s shoulders relaxed.

“Just promise me you won’t give her a really Christian name like Mary or Christina,” Rachel said.

“Deal.”

“Can she have a Hebrew name?”

“Don’t push your luck.”