I woke the next morning to the sound of laughter. As the sleep fog left my brain, I realized that I was on the sofa-bed in the living room. Alone. Which meant that either Blaine had snuck out in the wee hours of the morning or he was in somewhere in my house. From the sounds of scraping silverware and hearty laughter I assumed he was in the kitchen with my family. I hadn’t really planned on introducing him to them yet, but at least there was no yelling.

“So then, Finn and Puck got up on stage and starting singing Aqua’s ‘Candyman’. I swear, half the people in the audience had their phones out recording it so if that doesn’t end up on Youtube I’ll be surprised.”

Dad and Carole were laughing while Blaine told embarrassing stories about my stepbrother’s antics from the party as I shuffled into the kitchen. Carole’s warm smile alerted Blaine to my presence and he looked up at me and smiled.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” he said cheerily. I smiled back before glancing at the clock. Seven thirty-two.

“If Jude’s still sleeping at this hour, then you let him stay up way past his bedtime,” I spoke to my father as I grabbed a banana from the counter. He just ‘hmmed’ innocently and made himself busy rinsing his coffee cup and putting it in the dishwasher. Carole watched him lovingly and offered to refill Blaine’s mug.

“No, thank you, Mrs. Hummel,” he said politely. He turned to me, raising an eyebrow at my choice of breakfast. “You can’t tell me you’re not going to have any of these pancakes? Your mom is an amazing cook.”

My breath hitched slightly and I saw Carole’s eyes widen across the table. Blaine had already turned back to his plate and didn’t notice my hesitation before I replied. “Yeah, she is. You should taste her lasagna.”

Blaine’s eyes widened comically as he turned to Carole, his mouth still stuffed full of pancake. Thankfully, he swallowed before speaking. “You make lasagna? Like homemade, not from a box, honest to goodness lasagna?”

She nodded in response but her eyes were shining and locked with mine. I smiled back at her, my own eyes feeling slightly wet. I didn’t think I would ever actually feel comfortable calling her that, but I did think of her like a mom now. I loved her almost as much as my own mother, which is why I didn’t correct Blaine. He didn’t know and I didn’t want to hurt her. I could tell him more about my life later.

“Oh, Kurt! I have got to try that sometime!” He said excitedly. Then he blushed for the second time since I’d met him, realizing that he had just unthinkingly invited himself to dinner with my family. I just grinned at him.

“Well, I think Carole was planning on making that tonight,” I said after a moment. “Would you like to stay for dinner? If Dad and Carole don’t mind of course.” I turned to Dad then, who just raised his eyebrow before grunting an affirmative.

“Of course we would love to have you, Blaine,” Carole said sweetly. “I always seem to make too much these days, I’m so used to cooking for a houseful of teenagers. Now that Finn’s moved out there’s leftovers galore.”

“Our house was a regular glee club hangout in high school,” I confided to Blaine.

“Yeah, you guys seem pretty tight, if last night was anything to go by,” he laughed. Either he didn’t notice Dad staring at him or he was ignoring it. I was leaning towards the former. The guy seemed kind of oblivious.

“So, Blaine, tell me about yourself. It’s not often that I find complete strangers asleep with my son in my living room.”

“Dad!”

“Burt!”

Dad ignored both Carole and I and Blaine seemed to finally notice that he was the object of intense scrutiny. He met my father’s gaze and at least seemed a little abashed. He cleared his throat before speaking.

“Mr. Hummel, I understand how that must have looked to you, but I assure you, it was totally innocent. By the time we got the rest of your son’s friends to the Puckerman’s home it was already past two and Kurt didn’t want me falling asleep at the wheel so he offered to let me stay on the couch. Kurt was just being a polite host and offered to stay up and watch a movie with me because I have trouble sleeping in new places and we fell asleep.”

Well, that was mostly true, though I didn’t know about the whole sleep trouble bit, but Dad’s next words floored me.

“I get that it was late, but I was more referring to the fact that you were wrapped around my son like a squid.”

I almost choked on a bite of banana. Blaine reddened again before stuttering out his reply.

“Um, yeah, about that. I’m, uh, what you would call a sleep-snuggler. I don’t do it on purpose, but trust me, it’s caused some, er, awkward situations throughout the years. I’m just lucky that all my friends know about my sleeping habits and are comfortable with the fact that I’m gay or I probably would have beaten up for it.” He swirled the last bit of syrup on his otherwise empty plate with his fork. “I once fell asleep during a movie at my friend David’s house and ended up attaching myself to his mother. She still calls me her little koala.”

The whole table was silent for minute before Carole’s giggle broke the tension. I couldn’t help myself either and broke into loud laughter. Even Dad cracked a smile, breaking his stony expression.

Our laughter must have masked the sound of Jude’s footfalls because my lap was suddenly claimed by the sleepy-eyed boy.

‘What’s so funny?’ He signed slowly, looking around. His eyes perked up when he noticed Blaine.

‘It’s the music man!’

I laughed at his choice of words. “Yep! You remember Blaine, don’t you buddy?”

He nodded enthusiastically and turned in my lap to look at me. ‘Will he sing for me?’

“Well, I don’t know. You’ll have to ask him.” I smiled at Blaine who was smiling at Jude, his head cocked to the side.

“What did you want to ask me, Jude?” He watched with a puzzled expression as Jude began signing rapidly. His eyes flashed to mine once to let me know that he didn’t understand a word but otherwise he kept his attention on Jude.

“He wants to know if you’ll sing the song from the mall so he can show Grandma and Grandpa his cool dance moves from the stage,” I translated. Blaine grinned at him.

“I’d like that if you’re Daddy doesn’t mind singing with me. I think I’ll need his help to do the song without musical accompaniment.” He looked at me, his eyes turning shy. “Would you mind, Kurt?”

I gazed back feeling my heartbeat speed up. It took me a minute to realize he was waiting for a reply. “Oh, uh, sure. What was the song again? I was kind of freaking out while you were singing and didn’t pay attention.”

“Why were you freaking out while he was singing?” Dad interjected. I was startled, having completely forgotten he was even in the room.

“Oh, uh, that would be my fault,” Blaine mumbled, turning red to the tips of his ears. “I may have pulled Jude up onstage without telling Kurt, causing him to think his son had been kidnapped.”

“What?” Dad growled. Carole laid a restraining hand on his forearm. I just rolled my eyes.

“Easy, Dad, it was a misunderstanding. I went to throw away some trash and when I came back Jude had wondered over to the stage and was dancing and Blaine pulled him up onstage to dance. Really, if Blaine hadn’t pulled him onto the stage I would have had a harder time finding him.” I pressed my nose to Jude’s who let out a breathy giggle at the touch. “And Jude got a talking to about wondering away from Daddy.”

“Well, then, I guess it was lucky Blaine found him then,” Dad huffed. Carole stood and began clearing the plates from the table, waving away Blaine’s attempt to help. She set a bowl of cottage cheese in front of Jude who clapped excitedly and dug in.

“No pancakes for you, either, huh?” Blaine spoke to Jude who shook his head vehemently. I laughed at Blaine’s incredulous expression. “You and your Daddy don’t know what you’re missing. Those were the best pancakes I’ve ever eaten.”

“Thank you, honey,” Carole stated, patting Blaine’s curls. I rolled my eyes again mouthing ‘suck up’ to him. He just grinned at me and patted his stomach.

“Well, I gotta be getting to the shop,” Dad said, getting up from the table and grabbing his keys from the counter.  Jude dropped his spoon to the table and began signing again. “I didn’t forget about your dancing, buddy, but you’ll just have to show me later. I’m running late as it is. Tonight before dinner, I promise.”

Jude’s pout was adorable and I could see Dad’s desire to please his grandson warring with his need to leave. I knew if I didn’t intervene Dad would make himself late just to see Jude smile.

“Hey, sweetie, how about after Grandpa leaves for work we make up a whole setlist of songs for you to dance to and we’ll put on a little show before dinner. Does that sound good?” Dad’s expression showed relief and he quickly kissed Jude, then me, then Carole, before pausing in front of Blaine and patting him on the shoulder. He was out the door before Jude could turn those big blue eyes on him again.

Jude’s hands were flying as he told me what all songs he wanted me and Blaine to sing that he could dance to. I laughed and nodded at him indulgently every once in a while putting in my own two cents. We were in our own little bubble for a few minutes when I realized that Blaine was staring at us. His expression was happy if a little far away. When he noticed me looking back at him, he blushed and stood. I

“Uh, I guess I’ll be sticking around for a while, so do you mind if I take a quick shower?” He chewed his lip, not meeting my gaze. “I’m pretty sure I smell like smoke and booze from last night.”

“Yeah, sure,” I replied. Jude had turned back to his breakfast and I slipped myself out from under him. “Do you need to borrow some clothes? I’ve got some sweats that you could wear while I wash those.” I motioned for him to follow me out of the kitchen.

“Oh, no, I have extra clothes in my car,” he said with a shrug. “It’s an old habit from high school that I never broke.”

“Did your high school have a slushy machine, too,” I asked. His confused gaze gave me my answer to that.

“Uh, no, I just had some problems at home with my dad and I would crash with friends or even sleep in my car a lot of the time.” He said this like it was no big deal. I on the other hand was astounded.

“What? You slept in your car? In high school?” My voice raised in pitch even as it lowered in volume. I couldn’t imagine my dad and I ever getting into a fight so bad that I felt the need to leave. And apparently this had happened to him often enough that keeping an extra outfit in his car became habit.

He stopped dead at the front door, his pained grimace making me wish I could take my words back. Sometimes I forgot that just because my dad was probably the best father in the world, some people weren’t so lucky.

“Yeah, it’s kind of hard for me to talk about still, so can I tell you about another time?” he asked quietly. “I promise I’m not trying to be rude, it’s just a sore subject.”

“No, of course,” I replied, feeling like the world’s biggest ass. “It’s none of my business, it’s just….” I trailed off, not wanting to make him more uncomfortable.

“Your dad seems like a really great guy,” he said seriously. “A bit intimidating, but very protective of you. It’s easy to see how much he loves you.”

“Yeah,” I said softly. “Sorry if he tried to scare you. That’s just his papa-bear instincts coming out. He’s really a big softy.”

“Could’ve fooled me this morning when I woke up,” he chuckled.

Oh crap. I was worried about my friends scaring him off last night. I didn’t even think about my father doing the same thing this morning. Blaine must have noticed my horrified expression because he laughed before reassuring me that he was fine.

“It’s a good thing I have excellent bladder control, or else I probably would have wet myself out of fear when I woke up to a big burly guy standing over me and staring. And considering how I was wrapped around you, you should be thankful, too.” He rand a hand through his hair, embarrassed. “Sorry about that by the way. I probably should have warned you about that so you could’ve gone to your own bed.”

I felt my own face heat. “I don’t remember it really, but I’m sure I wouldn’t have minded.”

Our eyes met and held. I could feel an intensity building between us but I couldn’t seem to break the gaze. The butterflies in my stomach were swirling again, but I ignored the sensation. My son was just a room away, and as much as I wanted to kiss Blaine in that moment, I didn’t want my son to see that just yet. It would bring on a whole list of questions that I wasn’t ready to deal with.

Blaine finally broke our staring contest. “I guess I’d better go get those clothes,” he said softly, moving towards the door. I gave him an apologetic smile, hoping he would understand.

“Yeah,” I said with false enthusiasm. “We have a performance to put together and only a few hours to do it. Dad will be back by three so we can have an early dinner before the fireworks tonight.”

“Oh, I forgot it’s the fourth!” Blaine’s excited grin elicited a similar response in me. “I love fireworks!”

“Would you like to watch the display with us tonight?” I asked timidly. His excitement was infectious, but it also made me realize that the other man might already have plans. I fervently wished that he didn’t.

“I would love to,” he said, glancing at me from under his lashes. God those eyes were beautiful. “As long as you don’t think I’d be intruding on your time with your family.”

“Not at all,” I assured him. “Carole is already in love with you, I can tell and Jude thinks you’re awesome. Dad’s just protective of me. I haven’t had a lot of luck with dating over the years and he’s probably just afraid you’re going to break my heart or something.” I waved my hand dismissively and stared at the floor. I was going to have to have a chat with my father about not terrifying my potential love interests. Wait, love? Why did that word pop into my head?

“Well, I certainly have no plans on doing that,” he said quietly. “Yours is too good a heart to break.”

My breath caught in my throat at the compliment. “You don’t even really know me, Blaine. How can you think that about my heart?”

He looked at me, his eyes soft. “You wear your heart on my sleeve, Kurt. Just like it’s easy to see how much your father cares for you, it’s easy to see how much you care for everyone around you. Talking with you last night was one of the greatest experiences of my life. You’re a good person. It’s good to know there are really people like you in the world.” His gaze dropped as he suddenly turned bashful. “I’m really glad I met you. Gladder that you decided I was worth giving me your number so I could get to know you better. I hope you’ll let me know you.” His voice was a mixture of sadness and hope. It tugged at my heartstrings.

“I-I’d like that,” I whispered. I checked over my shoulder to see Jude and Carole in the midst of a conversation with their hands. Feeling brave, I rushed forward and planted a light kiss on Blaine’s cheek.

The goofy grin that spread across his face made the butterflies do acrobatics in my stomach and I relished the feeling. I could feel a matching grin forming on my own face as he stepped out the door to his car.

My first date with this guy was going on thirteen hours and didn’t look to be over for quite a while longer. This certainly wasn’t normal dating procedure, but I didn’t really care. I was ridiculously happy. I just hoped that the feeling would last.