AN- Wow. So, it's been forever and a day. Sorry, my dears. Thanks for sticking with me :)

I need to send some pretty huge props to my talented beta, gottriplets, who sat and talked me through an enormous mental block and is hugely to thank for continued posts! I love you, chickie :) You're the best!

PV

"I'm walking out of my office right now."

Blaine grinned to himself and shook his head, settling his phone against his shoulder in order to have free hands as he locked his office door from the outside.

"Kurt, I promise. I know we have to finish packing so we'll be ready to catch our flight in the morning and I will be on time for once... Yes, sweetie. I'm LITERALLY walking out the door this second. I prom-"

Blaine stopped cold when he turned away from his door to find a familiar face standing deliberately in his way.

"What?... No, uh, sorry. It's nothing. Just, someone needs to talk to me I think. I need to go. I'll be home in twenty minutes... Yes, I swear I'll keep it quick... Love you, too. Bye."

He let out a short, determined huff of air as he tucked his phone into his pocket, then crossed his arms in front of him stubbornly.

"What do you want, Celeste?"

The small blonde tensed, looking like a startled bird whose feathers had been thoroughly ruffled.

"Need you be so rude, Blaine?"

"Yes."

"Look," her jaw seemed to tense further, if that were possible. "I'm just asking for one minute of your time, and that you attempt to speak to me cordially. I've done nothing to you-"

"You've done nothing to me?!" Blaine interrupted incredulously.

"-since I started working here again," she finished evenly, though Blaine was more than a little bit surprised to hear some genuine sadness in her voice.

"Why HAVE you come to work here, Celeste?" Blaine questioned in a tired voice. He really just wanted to get home and start his and Kurt's first Christmas vacation together as soon as possible, but instead he was stuck having a conversation with his ex "bitch monster of evilness".

He'd known it was coming. He couldn't possibly have avoided her forever. And in all honesty he'd been starting to wish it would happen, simply so he could get it over with. Just not tonight, though. Not when his gorgeous boyfriend was waiting for him at home with a beautifully decorated Christmas tree in the background and the spicy scent of Kurt's inevitable Christmas baking hanging in the air. Their first Christmas together felt so monumentally special and he didn't want to waste a second of it.

"I just..." Celeste bit her lip hesitantly, then ran her fingers through her hair in agitation. "I don't even know anymore. At first I... look, it doesn't really matter... at least, not anymore."

Blaine stared at her, barely even feeling his arms falling limply to his sides.

Was that... actual sadness? Regret?

He had no idea what to make of her. This was a side of her that he had never seen. She seemed genuinely at a loss for words, and even more genuinely downcast. Something closely resembling pity began to fill him against his better judgment, and he sighed in irritation at his own softness.

"Are you okay?"

"Do you really care?" She laughed dryly, wiping at her eye in embarrassment as a small tear leaked out.

Blaine swallowed roughly and didn't answer. He honestly didn't have one.

With a hard swallow of her own, one that felt like there was a small rock stuck in her throat, Celeste nodded her head in a resigned manner.

"Whatever. It's fine. Listen, I just wanted to say... Merry Christmas. I hope it's a happy one."

Blaine's shock pretty much went through the roof at that point. He stared at her blankly, literally having no words. Of all the sentences he'd expected to come out of her mouth when he'd first turned to find her blocking his path, the last one she'd uttered had definitely NOT been it.

"Yeah," she nodded slowly, frustration hardening her movements. "I don't suppose I've earned you saying it back. You better go. It sounds like your lover is expecting you."

She had brushed past him quickly and almost reached the elevator doors by the time he found it within himself to reply.

"Boyfriend."

"What?" She turned back in confusion.

"Don't call him my lover. The way you say it demeans both of us. He's my boyfriend."

"Right," she nodded, holding her hands up in surrender. "Sorry. Boyfriend."

When he stayed silent she turned once again, humiliated at how vulnerable she was being, made worse by his lack of response.

"Celeste."

She hesitated, taking a steadying breath to hold back the tears that she realized, in horror, were burning at the back of her eyes.

Where the hell is this coming from?! Pull yourself together!

"Yes," her voice caught in he throat.

"Merry Christmas."

His voice was rough as well, but it was clear the catch in his throat came from the fact that he was speaking somewhat begrudgingly. Though... at the same time he actually still managed to sound sincere.

She wished she could hate him for it.

"Thanks," she whispered with a mirthless chuckle, then ducked into the elevator, hating herself instead.

"Hello there, lover."

Celeste turned around in surprise at the slurred greeting, then slumped against her kitchen counter with a depressed sigh when she caught view of her unexpected guest. Vince was sprawled out on her couch, obviously drunk. She shouldn't be surprised. Being mutually drunk was pretty much the only way they were able to stand being around each other.

"That word suddenly has a new and distasteful connotation for me."

"What?" He squinted one eye in confusion, trying to focus on her face.

"Nevermind," she sighed again. "I'm just feeling off. I had a very disturbing experience where I tried do something nice for once and ended up face to face with the reality of what a shitty person I am."

"Well that's no way to live, dollface. At least...not sober." Vince grinned crookedly, offering her the bottle of whiskey he'd been clutching in his hand. "Here, drink up."

Celeste grasped the bottle reluctantly, but when the sick, guilty feeling she was trying to push away reared its ugly head once again she gave in. Twisting off the cap, she screwed up her eyes and tossed back the bottle, swallowing as quickly as she could. Vince began chuckling when she coughed and sputtered, throat feeling like it was on fire. She wasn't nearly the drinker that he was.

"What the hell are you doing here, anyway?" She rasped, wiping at her mouth before flinging the high heels from her feet and propping her legs up on top of Vince's. "I thought you finally moved into your new place."

"I did," he sighed, taking another - much more smooth - swig himself. "Got everything settled a couple days ago. However, I found myself without company for the night, and I'm learning that I don't do very well on my own. Soooo, here I am. Your willing love slave for the evening."

Celeste watched him closely as he spoke. He was wearing his classic 'who the fuck cares' smirk, but it was easy to see that the message he was trying to send didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Why is it," she asked slowly, already starting to feel slightly fuzzy in the head, "that we have never once been together sober? The short time you were crashing on my couch I was kinda worried I was turning into an alcoholic. I don't think I sobered up enough that entire week to even feel the hangovers."

"We are never sober when we're together," Vince grunted, shoving the bottle into her hand and pushing her to take a drink, "because when we're sober we remember that I'm significantly gay and that you're one fucked up woman."

"At least I'm a straight woman sleeping with a man," she snorted, kicking at him playfully as the pleasant cloud of intoxication settled heavily over her brain, beginning to drown out the sad feelings.

"True," Vince snorted right back. "I guess I am more fucked up than you. I would even go so far as to say that I've done more fucked up things in my life than good."

"I don't know about that," she sighed. "I'm pretty fucked up, and I've done some terrible things as well."

"Really," he chuckled. "Let's contrast and compare. One time, I was late for my boyfriend's birthday dinner because I was too busy getting my dick sucked by my assistant at work."

"Is that supposed to surprise me?" Celeste laughed with a shrug.

"There's more to it," Vince snatched the bottle back from her hands. "I was still in the middle of the blow job when he called to check where I was."

"That's a bit worse," she shrugged.

"I came while I was still on the phone with him, then went home for our date."

She stared at him silently for a moment before grabbing the bottle back.

"Yeah, you're scum."

"Told ya."

"I've still done worse."

"Enlighten me," he raised his eyebrows in challenge.

"Fine," she narrowed her eyes. "One time I got so angry at a boyfriend I threw his Playstation out the window and stabbed his basketball with a knife."

It was Vince's turn to stare at her in silence.

"Aaaand, now I'll be hiding all the knives before going to bed."

"Told ya," she repeated, smirking vindictively.

"I still bet I've got you beat."

"Fine. Your turn."

"Once I purposely messed with my boyfriend's bathroom scale to make him think he was gaining weight, because I knew he would stay with me if he was insecure enough."

"If you do that to me I'll kill you."

"Don't worry," he snorted. "You're way too scary of a bitch to risk anything like that."

She sobered a bit when she realized that this was the truth and probably the reason she'd never have a chance at getting Blaine back. Angrily swallowing against the lump that was threatening to settle in her throat once more, she took another long drink, coughing long and hard at the end.

"That was attractive," Vince exhaled slowly, shaking his head.

"My turn," she gasped, ignoring his comment. "Let's see... Oh! One time I faked a pregnancy scare to keep a guy from breaking up with me."

He snickered, letting his head fall back against the couch.

"Correction: you're not only a scary bitch, you're a crazy bitch."

"Are you conceding?" She asked with a grin.

"Never! Ok, one time I broke up with someone right before Christmas, just because I didn't want the hassle of buying presents."

"When I first started dating this one guy, I slipped a sleeping pill in his drink so that he'd stay the night."

Vince snatched the bottle from her warily at that and peered inside. When she rolled her eyes he shrugged and drank anyway.

"Let's see, something I've done that's worse than drugging someone... Oh, hey, a guy once took me as his date to a wedding of one of his friends from high school, and I fucked the groom in a closet ten minutes before they walked down the aisle."

"I forbade my boyfriend to see his own parents at Christmas."

"I slept with my boyfriend's ex."

"I forbade my boyfriend to hang out with any of his friends that didn't like me... which was all of them."

"I slept with my boyfriend's other ex."

"I slept with my boyfriend's boss."

"I slept with the first ex-boyfriend again... and again."

"I slept with my boyfriend's brother. Granted the brother didn't know who I was at the time, which actually makes me even worse I think."

"I tried to sleep with my boyfriend's brother. Didn't work, but I still get points for trying. I had to try and pass the whole thing off as a joke later."

"I once stole a boyfriend's idea for a work project and passed it off as my own right under his nose."

"Ouch! That's pretty bad. Let me think... Well, I don't know if this beats you, but I once went through a whole scheme where I stole my boyfriend's phone, texted nasty stuff to one of his friends, and made it seem like they were in a huge fight and told him I never wanted to see him again. Kurt came home the next day so devastated when the guy wouldn't talk to him at work. And all because I was pissed that they had spent time together. You gotta admit that's bad, blondie."

"That's bad," she agreed with a smirk, but then paused, feeling an odd sense of familiarity that she couldn't put her finger on. "Who's Kurt?"

"Oh, just... some guy I was with for a while," he coughed, trying to brush past the topic. Celeste could see, even as fuzzy as her head currently was, that this guy wasn't just an old boyfriend. He was THE old boyfriend. She laughed ironically to herself.

We're both trying to get past someone we have no chance with because we thoroughly fucked them over.

Comparing their stories, she realized that this Kurt guy was to Vince as Blaine was to her. And here they were, getting drunk and showing off how they'd each ruined what was probably the best thing in their lives.

"Guess that's why we're together," she whispered.

"What?"

"We're both assholes," she shrugged, trying to pretend like what she was saying didn't matter to her. "That's why we're together right now."

"Whatever," Vince growled, bringing the bottle to his lips to finish the last little bit.

Suddenly, she didn't want to talk anymore. She didn't want to think.

"Come on. Let's agree we're both the worst and get this moving before one of us passes out."

"Spoken like a woman in love," he teased, letting her pull him from the couch.

More like a woman trying to forget love, she corrected in her head.

Then they stumbled together to her room, both trying to forget it all.

The taxi was cruising down the road in surprisingly little traffic for once, but Blaine's mind was far too busy to even notice, much less enjoy their quick pace.

What the hell was that all about?!

He shook his head slowly, sighing to himself as he rubbed his forehead in frustration. He kept thinking to himself that this 'nice act' of Celeste's had to be just that, an act. The thing that was bothering him though, was the fact that she had seemed genuinely distraught.

Why now? What was going through her mind?

He sighed, shaking his head once again, but this time hoping to clear it of all its thoughts. This was doing him no good. He'd never been able to figure her out before. Why try now?

He grabbed for his phone gratefully when he heard his text alert go off. Any distraction was welcome at the moment. He grinned when he saw that it was a group text between him and his parents. They had been oddly communicative ever since being introduced to Kurt. He knew them well enough to see that part of their desire to speak to him constantly came from their fear of any more huge changes happening in his life without their knowledge. He actually didn't mind. Their newfound presence in his life wasn't oppressive. Slightly annoying on occasion, but actually welcome after the years of distance. They also seemed to genuinely like Kurt, despite their struggle to come to terms with the new relationship. They had even had invited both Kurt and Blaine to spend the entire Thanksgiving weekend with them last month.

He chuckled as more alerts dinged on his phone. Despite their immense wealth, his parents had always been pretty backward when it came to technology. Things like texting, auto-correct and voice recognition were pretty new to them both, leading to some amusing conversations.

Hey son. It's dad. Mom's out of state, so doing that grope thing ~D

Are you there Kate? ~D

You don't need to text us separately, Frank. That's the point of group texting ~M

He shook his head with a smile, typing quickly.

Wow! Who ya groping dad? ~B

Oh sorry Kate. What are talking about Blaine? ~D

Oh good gracious, Frank. Check your texts before you send them! ~M

I still don't know what you're stalking about ~D

It's nothing, dad, and I'm not stalking anyone ~B

Oh, good grief ~M

Oh now I see. You know what I meant! Damn buttons are so small! ~D

Sure, blame the technology ~B

Don't tease your father, dear. What did you want, Frank? ~M

I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to two of my favorite people at the same time is all ~D

Blaine melted slightly as he read the words. He knew that his dad had been feeling terribly guilty after his initial reaction to Blaine's announcement, including the moment when he'd accused his son of lying to him all these years. He was still incredibly awkward about the whole situation, and clearly uncomfortable at certain points, but the fact was that he was trying. Really, really hard. That meant more to Blaine than anything.

I know it's not for two days but Blaine's leaving on his trip in the morning and I figured he's gonna be busy with all Kurt's fucking so I thought I'd say it now :) ~D

Blaine's eyes widened, trying to figure out if this was another one of his dad's awkward attempts at being okay with his son's sexuality, or another auto-correct gone wrong. He didn't have to wait for long.

Fussing! I meant fussing! I swear! Blaine said Kurt fusses a lot about traveling! ~D

Blaine threw his head back in laughter at that, causing the cab driver to turn and look at him briefly.

Goodness sake, Frank! How many times do I have to tell you to check your texts! ~M

Oh god, dad. Thanks for the laugh :) ~B

And thank you for the Christmas wishes! I won't be too busy to call my parents on Christmas though. Promise. Even with all Kurt's "fussing" ;) Plus, we'll celebrate with you after we get back ~B

Oh my. I'm certainly glad these conversations are private! ~M

Blaine bit his lip, thinking of every scandal that had ever been unearthed by "newly discovered" text messages. He quickly decided that it would be much kinder to keep his mother in the dark on this one.

Ok, well, I'm almost home and I've got a lot to do tonight. I'm gonna scoot. K? ~B

Okay, son. Oh, and just so you know, one of you left a pair of cocks in the guest bedroom from Thanksgiving. I had them dry cleaned and they're waiting for when you come visit next ~M

After about three seconds of sheer panic where he desperately tried to remember whether or not they had left a dildo at his parents' house, he remembered that Kurt had specifically left those things at home, stating that 'You don't bring those things into your parents' home! It's just wrong!'. Then he reread the part about dry cleaning and realized what must have happened. He practically rolled over in the seat laughing. The cab driver seemed relieved when he stated that they had arrived, looking pointedly at the running meter, then the door. Blaine took the hint and tipped him well, stepping outside to finish the conversation.

Ok, mom. I'm sorry, but... What the hell?! ~B

There were several moments of quiet before a flood of texts hit him almost at once.

Socks! ~M

Is this an "lol" Blaine? ~D

I meant socks! ~M

I swear I typed socks! ~M

It changed it from socks! ~M

I'm gonna do it. Wait for it. Lol :) ~D

Blaine closed his eyes, groaning slightly in amusement.

Ah, that makes a bit more sense. And yes, dad. That was the perfect use of "lol". Good job ~B

Check your texts before you send them Kate ~D

Don't be snide, Frank. It's unattractive. And you, Blaine. There was no need to curse ~M

You're the one who said cocks ~B

Where do you go to get cocks dry cleaned? ~ D

I'm leaving now. I'm mortified and you're both ingrates ~M

Don't go away mad honey. I'm sorry. Forgive me? ~D

Me too, mom. I'm sorry I teased you for saying cocks :) ~B

Fine. It's the season of forgiveness. But you're both still ingrates ~M

Agreed ;) K, I really gotta go. Love you both ~B

Love you son ~D

Love you, dear ~M

Blaine swallowed roughly, eyes misting up a bit as he read back through the conversation. He couldn't remember the last time they'd all conversed like this, so easily and with so much laughter. It had to have been when he was still pretty young. He chewed at the inside of his lip thoughtfully as he finally tucked away his phone, waving at Bernard as he made his way to the elevator.

He couldn't help thinking about the fact the Kurt was ultimately to thank for this change. Had it not been for their new relationship, he honestly didn't think he'd be reconnecting with his parents the way he currently was. It was like Kurt was the magical glue that was making everything in his life finally come together.

He grinned, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet as the elevator moved upwards, his mind completely cleared of the events leading up to his cab ride home. It was gonna be an amazing Christmas. He just knew it.