Chapter 31

December 15, 2012

The next morning was beautiful. After several days of cloudy weather there was finally a bright sun visible in the sky. Kurt hoped it would stay like this for a while.

When he finally went down into the kitchen to make something for breakfast he found his dad already up and reading a newspaper.

"Morning," Burt greeted him.

"Morning," Kurt responded and took in his dad's posture. "I take it the date didn't go too well?"

The man sighed and closed the newspaper when Kurt went to the fridge to look for something edible. "It was alright until we started talking slavery... As a veterinarian I thought she would be sympathetic to slaves but apparently she trained herself not to get attached or too emotional over mistreated slaves. She's neither pro-slavery, nor against it, she just doesn't care. I told her that her son had hit a slave and she said 'boys' and that's it! I'm sorry kiddo but it seems that Finn won't get punished for what he did."

"Are you going to continue seeing her?" Kurt asked and poured some milk on the cereal. He decided to ignore the punishment topic knowing that soon Finn would get what he deserved; not ass kicking but as good as.

"I don't think so. If I was ever to seriously be with someone I need a woman, who would treat Blaine as a person. Any slave for that matter."

Kurt sat down to eat. "There is still a possibility that Blaine will leave once he gets better..."

"Do you want me to date Carole?"

"I'm just saying that you shouldn't give up just because she built walls around herself," the boy explained himself. "I bet it used to hurt her too much to see the slaves being treated like rubbish so she learned how to deal with it. And Mike, my slave friend, said that she was a nice lady. She probably treats slave like any other humans..."

"She may or may not be nice to them but the way she ignored the news about her own son beating someone, it just didn't feel right," the man shook his head.

"It's your decision, really, but I think you shouldn't be so quick to judge," Kurt said and finally put a spoon of cereal into his mouth. "Give her some time."

"Look who is talking with his mouth full," Burt laughed seeing how he was the one getting scolded over it quite often.

"I'm hungry," the teen defended himself after swallowing the food.

They were laughing when Blaine entered the kitchen, his eyes still heavy with sleep. "Good morning," he greeted the Hummels and sat down on the chair that was his usual now.

"Morning, kiddo, want some cereal?" Burt asked and pushed the box closer to the boy.

"Thank you but I'm not hungry yet," the boy answered with a yawn.

"You look pale," Kurt said when he got a better look at the other boy's face. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Just tired," Blaine mumbled.

"Are you sure? Your eyes are kind of red..." Burt looked at him with concern.

"I'm sure," the boy managed a smile.

Kurt took in his appearance until it dawned on him – Blaine must have spent the night crying. Aware that the boy wouldn't want this to be pointed out, he decided to ignore it.

"If you are tired you should take a nap later on," he said with an encouraging smile, pretending to having bought the being tired excuse. "I'm taking Noah shopping today by the way. That should be fun."

Blaine looked at confused. "Puck shopping? I doubt it will be fun."

"He doesn't have a say in that," Kurt smirked victoriously. "He will be my personal shopping sla–"

"So, Blaine, I was thinking we could do something together while Kurt is gone," Burt cut in to distract the slave from Kurt's slip up. "I was thinking of 'Monopoly'. Are you up for it?"

Blaine gave Kurt a smile, showing that he was not upset about the slave joke and responded to Burt's suggestion, "It sounds fun, Mr Burt," he said even though it was clear to Kurt that he wasn't too sure it would be fun to spend an afternoon with the man.

"Great! Kurt always wins so I stopped playing with him long ago," Burt grimaced. "When are you leaving, Kurt?"

"I told Noah to come at eleven so he should be here soon," the boy said after checking the time. "I'll try not to take too long because we still need to clean the house."

"Ah, yeah, we'll do it later, I'm too excited for the game," the man said way too cheerfully and Kurt made a mental note to tell him later to tone it down a little.

They continued chatting, Blaine not saying much since he was still struggling to fully wake up. No more than ten minutes later the doorbell rang and Puck came in when Kurt let him in.

"What's up?" he greeted Blaine and Burt.

"Hey, Puck," Blaine smiled at the boy.

"Morning," Burt said and looked at the teen solemnly. "I wish you the strength today. I truly hope to see you alive after Kurt is done with you."

"I'm not that bad," Kurt crossed his arms over his chest.

"Last time I went shopping with you I had blisters on my feet, blisters!"

"You shouldn't have worn new shoes for that..." Kurt rolled his eyes. "Okay, Puck, we should get going. There are many stores to visit."

"I'll give you some cash," Burt said and went to find his wallet.

"How long do you think this will take?" Puck asked warily.

"Not too long," Kurt said thinking. "Four to five hours maybe? Depends on how lucky we are."

"Four to..." Puck gaped. "Kill me now."

"Oh, come on, we will have loads of fun," the teenager said with a wide grin. "Well, I'll be having fun, that's for sure."

"Remind me not to anger you in the future..." Puck whined when Burt came back.

The man gave Kurt a few bills and the boy put them in his pocket. "Thanks, dad. Come on, No– Puck, to the shopping heaven!"

"Before we go there... The crazy guy a few streets from here is moving out next week and he's having a garage sale today. Thought we should check it out," Puck said.

"A garage sale in December? Is he serious?" Burt asked surprised.

"I said he was crazy," the mohawked teen laughed.

"You should go then," the man shrugged. "You know what they say, 'one man's junk is another man's treasure'."

Puck snorted. "Yeah, Kurt and Blaine are well aware of that."

"Oh my god, Noah, shut up," Kurt said, his cheeks burning. "It's 'trash', dad, not 'junk'. I'm okay with checking it out. There might be something good."

After saying goodbyes Puck and Kurt left Blaine with Burt, who was talking excitedly about how they should modify the original rules of 'Monopoly' so that the game wouldn't take ages to finish.

Puck gave him directions and soon they were parking by the house with an open garage and various stuff scattered around the driveway. Some of them were put on the snow even.

"Who is this guy?" Kurt whispered to Puck.

"It's Coach Tanaka. Well, he used to be a coach of the football team in McKinley but he kind of lost it when Miss Pillsbury broke up with him..."

The boy went into the garage and saw a man sitting in a lawn chair with a can of beer in his right hand.

"Hey, coach," Puck greeted the man and got a grunt in response. "Let's look around."

Kurt stared at the man for a little while longer but forced himself to move. He didn't bother to look through the clothes since the man was much bigger than Blaine so he just looked through the other stuff, hoping to find something that might cheer up the slave boy.

"Kurt, come her," Puck shouted after a couple of minutes.

"Are you calling me by my name because you feel guilty?" Kurt asked when he reached the other boy.

"Yeah, I'll go back to calling you princess after today," the boy said and lifted an old guitar. "Remember the guitar pick Blaine had in his bag? I think he might play."

Kurt looked back at the future they painted together where Blaine said he would play guitar to his cat. "Yeah, he definitely plays. I don't really have much money and Blaine needs a full wardrobe... How much do you think it will cost?"

"The man is drunk, I'm sure we can get it almost for free," Puck said. "Let's go and ask him. This is the only good thing around here."

Kurt nodded and they carefully made their way back to the man, who was now asleep, the beer on the ground.

"Coach?" Puck shook the man until he woke up. "How much do you want for the guitar?

The man opened his eyes lazily and looked at the instrument with his eyes unfocused. "Five bucks."

"Seriously?" Kurt mouthed to Puck. The guitar may have been old but it must have been of a good condition if Puck suggested buying it after all.

"Just take it," Tanaka said and Kurt was happy to give him five dollars.

They took the instrument and put it on the back seat. "I can't believe it was so cheap... Are you sure he won't come after us once he sobers up? I feel like a thief almost."

"Don't worry, just think of how happy Blainers is going to be," Puck smirked and made himself comfortable in the passenger seat.

They started to drive and Kurt couldn't help but ask the question that had been on his mind for a long time. "Why do you care about Blaine? No offense but you don't seem like a guy, who cares for others..."

"My biological parents are slaves," Puck answered, mindlessly looking through the window.

"What?" Kurt stared at him in disbelief before he remembered he was supposed to look at the road in front of him. "I thought kids born for slaves are supposed to be slaves as well."

"They are. I'm an exception. People who raised me couldn't have kids so they bought two young slaves, made them fuck until they got pregnant, then resold the guy and after I was born they resold the girl as well. A couple of years ago my so called grandfather felt the need to explain why I'm such a fuck up so he told me the truth."

"Aren't slaves expensive? I thought you didn't have much money..."

"My parents' business went bankrupt, dad left mom, and now we are poor," Puck explained and fell silent. Kurt didn't push him any further.

"Hey, Kurt, Kurt, look at me," Puck yelled and the teenager looked up to see the teen getting out of the fitting room.

He was wearing a bright pink shirt, so short that his belly button was showing, a light purple skirt that covered his knees, and a hat with various flowers sticking out of it.

"Aren't I pretty, Kurt?" he asked and spun around.

Kurt laughed at the sight and got his phone out of the pocket. "Let me take a video of that. Spin around again," the teen did as asked and Kurt knew he had the best blackmail material. "Blaine is going to love this."

"We should put a show for him," Puck said and clapped his hands. He quickly looked through the racks of clothes and put an outfit for Kurt. "Here, put this on."

The teen laughed and grabbed the clothes. He really did not expect to have this much fun. Puck had been grim at first but when Kurt told him he didn't have to do anything besides carrying the bags because his taste couldn't be trusted, he perked up and went looking for fun.

At the first shop the boy spent most time flirting with the shop assistant until Kurt dragged him out of it threatening to tell Lauren to cut off his balls. The threat worked its magic and in the next second-hand shop the boy was behaving until he found a new activity – putting on the weirdest clothes he could find and then walking around the shop in them while Kurt looked for anything that Blaine would look nice in.

Kurt quickly put Puck's selected outfit on and exited the fitting room to hear claps from the young shop assistant and cat calls from Puck. Laughing Kurt strutted across the shop imagining it was a catwalk while Puck took photos. The teen didn't remember the last time he had so much fun.

Hours later the boys drove back to Kurt's home exhausted. After they went through all second-hand shops they went to the mall to look for some cheap clothes there and Kurt also dragged Puck to various shops for Christmas shopping as well. Puck had to go back to the car several times because he couldn't hold all the bags.

Kurt unlocked the door and the two of them went in, carrying some of the bags with them. Voices in the living room caught their attention.

"This is so unfair," Burt whined. "Life is so unfair..."

Kurt looked at the scene in front of him. Blaine was sitting on the ground with his legs crossed while Burt was lying on his side. The slave was wearing a wide smile.

"What's going on?" Kurt asked, happy to see Blaine kind of relaxed around his dad.

"I was just sent to jail," Burt said and moved his metal car to the jail square. "Not to mention that I'm losing just as always... Blaine is just as good as you are. You two should battle one day."

"Maybe we will," Kurt laughed. "Seeing it's almost six I think we should clean the house tomorrow. Have you started on dinner?"

"Oh," Burt looked at his son guiltily. "Let's order something in, alright? Blaine, as a winner you get to choose."

"Choose something good because I'm staying for dinner," Puck announced.

"Since when?" Kurt looked at him.

"Since I earned my forgiveness and I can go back to being an ass," the teen replied. "Let's get the bags upstairs, princess."

"I'll help," Blaine offered and was about to stand up when Kurt spoke.

"You two pack the game and we'll take everything upstairs," he said and they did just that.

Burt ordered a few pizzas since it was Blaine's pick and Kurt together with Puck took everything into Blaine's room, luckily unnoticed. When the delivery arrived they sat around the kitchen table.

"So, Puck, how was shopping with my kid?" Burt asked and took a big bite of his pizza.

"It was disastrous. Just like you said, papa Hummel," the teen said, looking sad. "I've never been tortured this much in my life."

While the boy was complaining Kurt took his phone out and opened the photo gallery under the table.

"I don't remember you complaining," the boy said and showed everyone the photo of Puck in a short grey sparkly dress.

Everyone around the table laughed and Puck ducked his head. "Fine, I may have had a little bit of fun. Not much though, like five minutes tops!"

Kurt showed the rest of the photos, some of them of his own, while Blaine and Burt laughed. "Please, tell me you bought that pink shirt, Puck," Blaine couldn't stop staring at the last photo. "You look fabulous in it."

"I was actually thinking of going back on Monday and buying it for him for Christmas," Kurt laughed.

"I looked pretty badass in it," Puck said with his mouth full.

After dinner the three boys went upstairs to Blaine's room, which confused the slave but he didn't say anything. When they entered Kurt saw surprise on his face when he noticed the bags in his room.

"So, fashion show? Anyone?" Puck suggested and flopped onto the bed.

"What?" Blaine asked confused.

"Princess and I already got our time to shine. It's your turn," the boy smirked. "Strip for us, sexy beast!"

"What Noah is trying to say is that we bought these clothes and shoes for you," Kurt said gesturing towards the bags. "They are not new and I'll have to wash them just in case but I made sure they are nice. And I got you a few bowties because I think you will look very nice in them. I hope that's okay..."

"That's..." Blaine began but couldn't finish, felt speechless. "You shouldn't have to–"

"Yes, I should have," Kurt contradicted him. "You needed some clothes that would properly fit you. And I didn't spend much so don't you worry about money, okay?"

"Can I repay you somehow? I don't know how but–"

"I got an idea," Puck said and ran out of the room, leaving the other two confused. When he came back he had the guitar in his hand. "You could play something for us."

Blaine's eyes widened at the instrument offered to him and he gingerly took it into his hands.

"Happy belated birthday," Kurt said laughing.

"It was months ago," Blaine whispered and ran his fingers over the strings carefully.

"That's why it's 'belated'," the boy laughed and Puck looked at him with curiosity until a knowing smirk appeared.

"So, play for us?" the teen asked and sat down on the bed again.

"I haven't played for a while... But I'll try," Blaine said and rearranged the instrument so he could comfortably play. "I'll tune it first."

It took a couple of minutes before the instrument sounded the way it should and Blaine started playing a song that Kurt couldn't recognise. The slave boy looked as if he was no longer aware of his surroundings, lost in the music, eyes closed and a small smile playing on his face.