FIC: Forever Home - Chapter 8 of 100
Title: Forever Home - Chapter 8
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Kadam (Kurt Hummel/Adam Crawford)
Rating: R (PG-13 for now)
Spoilers: AU. If you’ve seen Kurt and Adam interact, you’re good.
Summary: Adam is bored, and realizes he needs a companion. He decides to adopt a hybrid human/cat.
Warning: Mentions of past abuse (non-sexual) from other canon Glee characters. This fic is not particularly kind to most canon Glee characters.
Length: About 2,500 words this chapter. About 37,000 words so far. 461,000 total.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story; they're owned by Fox. Any non-Glee characters are my own invention.
A/N: This part is still PG-13, but getting closer to R. The first part is here: Chapter 1
Chapter 7
CHAPTER 8
While Kurt was napping, Adam had caught up with his e-mail correspondence. He realized he’d probably made a huge mistake in not asking his landlady ahead of time if it was okay to adopt a hybrid. Since she had a purebred cat of her own, he hadn’t given it that much thought. He quickly found his copy of the lease, and found out that pets were fine, pure or hybrid, but he would have to pay an extra $25 per month for a purebred, and $100 more per month for a hybrid. Just for curiosity’s sake, he looked up the rule for an additional tenant, and found it was also $100.
He wrote an e-mail to Mrs. Avery - Lily, he had to remember that - and apologized for not asking her about Kurt first. He promised to write her a pro-rated check for that month in the morning. He assured her that Kurt was well-behaved, but was very shy and not used to being around people.
Lily wrote back soon after and said it was fine, he could give her the check the day after tomorrow, when he and Kurt came for cookies and lemonade, or cookies and tea, whatever they preferred
At lunch he’d persuaded Kurt to eat half a sandwich as well as a bowl of soup, but didn’t want to pressure him to eat more if he wasn’t ready. Besides, dinner time wasn’t all that far away, so it might just give Kurt a better appetite.
Kurt insisted on doing the dishes. He said it had been a long time, but he hadn’t forgotten how. Adam watched carefully, not so much concerned that Kurt would break a dish as that he might somehow hurt himself. He realized he would need to give Kurt more credit, though, as the dishes were soon clean, dry, and put away again, with no mishaps. He had a dishwasher, but seldom used it, because with only himself to cook for, it took too long to fill up. Kurt cleaned the stove, counter and table, and probably would have mopped the floor if Adam hadn’t distracted him.
“Let’s take that tour now. I want you to get familiar where things are so you’ll be more comfortable here.”
“Okay,” Kurt agreed. “I’m wide awake now.”
Adam left the radio on, since it seemed to have soothed Kurt’s nerves earlier. “As you can see, there’s just about everything here that you could want for making a gourmet meal. When I have the Apples over - that’s my singing group, Kurt - I like to fix a really nice meal. We usually have potluck at these things, but a few of us really like to put on a nice dinner. You said you like to cook, right?”
Kurt nodded, still starting at the array of implements in the kitchen. “Yes, I do. But it was hard to even find something as simple as saffron in town. Whenever we had to go into Cincinnati to get parts Dad needed for the shop or something, he’d take me to this fancy grocery store and let me get some of the things I just couldn’t find at home.”
“Oh, so you grew up in…Ohio, was it?” Adam’s grasp of U.S. geography was better than it had been when he first moved to New York, but he was still surprised that Kurt had been brought there from so far away.
“Yeah, a little town called…I don’t remember now, I haven’t thought about it in a while. It was named after some kind of bean.”
Adam already had a plan in the back of his mind to try to find Kurt’s family, so this gave him a little bit more to go on.
“Well, there are plenty of grocery stores here with most of the things we’ll need. If you want to cook or bake, that’s fine, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to supervise you in the kitchen until I’m sure you’re used to everything. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“I’ll be careful, Adam, I promise, but I understand.”
Kurt didn’t seem all that disappointed or offended.
They moved on to the living room. The first thing Kurt noticed, and headed straight for, was the piano. He was careful not to touch it, going so far as to put his hands behind his back.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Adam remarked. “Do you play?”
Kurt blinked, knowing Adam had to be talking to him, but it still seemed unreal. “I used to. Mama had one and she taught me. But it’s been a long time.”
“Well, maybe this evening you can sit with me and we’ll play together, and you can get used to it again.”
“Really? You’d let me play it? I promise I’ll be careful!”
“Of course you can. You can help me keep it in tune. I have a cleaning lady come in once a week, but I take care of cleaning the piano myself.”
Kurt nodded. “But if you want, you don’t have to pay someone to clean the apartment. I can do that for you now.”
Adam sighed. “Kurt, I didn’t bring you here to put you to work. You can help me keep the place picked up in between, but I’m not going to let Nancy go. She’s been working for me since I moved here, and she’d have to find another client to replace me. She works for Lily, too, but she’s got bills to pay.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t think about that. I was just thinking about saving money. One of the things they trained us to do at the store was keep things clean. Well, Miss Emma was more concerned about that than Mr. Will, but he didn’t see any point in paying someone to clean up when he had a bunch of able-bodied hybrids who needed to learn how.”
“I see.” Adam’s opinion of Will Scheuster wasn’t improving. “Well, I’ll tell you what. Keep your room and bathroom clean, and I’ll do my own, and we’ll both make sure the kitchen is clean. We’ll let Nancy handle the rest, alright?”
“Sure.” Kurt was looking around the large, but comfortable room. “This is just such a big place.” His gaze was drawn to a corner of the room that was literally floor to ceiling with books, several shelves on each wall. There was even a ladder to reach the taller shelves. “Look at all those books!” he breathed.
“Ah, yes.” Adam took his arm and walked him over to the shelves. “This is the library. This ladder hooks onto that shelf up there, you see? It can be moved all along the shelves, and you should be able to reach any book from some rung or another on the ladder.”
“Have you read all of these?”
Adam burst out laughing. “Oh, no, I haven’t had time to read nearly enough of them. Actually, this library belonged to Lily’s husband, and it came with the apartment. Most of my books are paperbacks, or textbooks, and they’re in my bedroom. Maybe we should look there for something for you to read.”
“It’s been a long time, but I do want to start reading again.”
Adam was struck with inspiration. “Did you ever read any of the Harry Potter books?”
“I read the first one, and I liked it, but I was having a little trouble reading it. It was -- What did Dad say, “beyond my learning level” or something. They didn’t really expect us to have to do much reading, so I didn’t really get too far. Dad wanted to help me out, but he found the books really confusing. He said there were too many words he didn’t know, either, ‘cause the writer was making up her own.”
Adam grinned. “That’s part of the fun of being a writer. I’ll tell you what, I have all the books. Since it’s been such a long time since you read the first one, I can start reading that to you. You can sit next to me and read along with me as I read it to you, and it should be easier to pick up the words that way.”
“Cool! And you have the right accent for it, too!” Kurt observed, grinning from ear to ear.
“That I do! You know they made movies of all the books, right?”
Kurt nodded. “I wanted to see them, but Dad thought they might be kind of scary for me. I’m not sure why, and he wouldn’t explain.”
Thinking about some of the elements in the movie, a young boy being treated cruelly by people who were supposed to look after him, and constantly having his life threatened by powerful beings, Adam agreed that perhaps Kurt should wait a bit on the movies. At least with the books, it would be a lot easier to stop whenever Kurt had a question or seemed to be upset.
“Let’s read the books first, then we’ll watch the movies, okay?”
Kurt shrugged. “Sure, whatever you want.”
“There are a few things you’re going to have to just trust me about, and let me decide what you’re ready to handle, or not, okay?”
“Okay,” Kurt agreed.
“I know you’re 18, but you haven’t had the education, experiences, or been able to develop the judgment of most people your age, so please don’t be offended if you think I’m treating you as a bit younger than you are. You’ll catch up soon enough, I’m sure. Now, you haven’t seen nearly all of the apartment yet. Come on.”
Adam showed Kurt the hall closet, where he would keep Kurt’s leash, along with his coat and jacket, once they went shopping again. “If you want, I’ll help you put your clothes away in your room, and we can figure out what else you need.”
“Okay.”
Kurt followed Adam back to his bedroom, and they spent a very short time putting away the clothes Kurt had brought with him and what they’d bought at the store. There was still plenty of room in the closet and dresser.
“We’ll get you some shoes tomorrow, and see about finding some nicer things at the mall.” Adam gently stroked the scarf Kurt was wearing. “This is nice. Do you like scarves? You only have one other.”
Kurt sighed, and tightened his hands into fists. “I had a lot more, but I couldn’t take them with me. They said they weren’t practical. As if fashion has to be practical!”
Adam smiled, pleased he’d found something Kurt was passionate about. “You’re interested in fashion, then?”
“Yeah. I used to design things for myself - that I couldn’t afford to make, of course. And I’d design things that would have been nice for my mom, but of course, it was too late for her to wear them. But I still thought there were a lot of nice things she should have had the chance to wear.”
“What about your father?”
Kurt laughed, a sound which delighted Adam. “No, his idea of fashion is jeans, a flannel shirt, and a trucker’s cap. I hardly ever remember him wearing anything else. Except to my mom’s funeral. He wore a suit, but I had to tie his tie for him. It had been so long since he’d worn one, he’d forgotten how to do it.”
Adam’s mind was working rapidly, spinning with ideas. “Well, let’s get you some paper, colored pencils or whatever you need, and get you started designing again. If you like, you can design things for yourself, or me, and we’ll be the most fashionably dressed guys around here!”
Kurt clapped his hands. “You really mean it?”
“Why not?” Adam wondered what he was getting himself in for. He had no idea how much it would cost for the types of fabrics Kurt would want, but it sounded like it would be a fun project, and Kurt would need something to do with his time. As much as Adam was enjoying his company, they couldn’t be together constantly.
“Now, let me show you the TV room. It’s a bedroom I turned into a TV room, since I wanted to keep the living room for the piano and books.”
Kurt expected to see a normal sized TV, but instead, the one mounted on the wall was huge.
“Wow, how big is that TV?”
“Sixty-five inches. It’s a fairly new model, so it will play 3-D movies.”
“Wow!”
Adam hesitated, then brought up with might be a touchy subject.
“One of the pamphlets I read said that some people don’t allow their hybrids to watch television, because they think it will give them too many ideas and stir up their imagination. That it might make you want things you’ll never get in life, and you’ll be resentful.”
Kurt shrugged. “That kind of happens anyway.”
“Yes, it does. We both have a lot to learn, you and I, about living together, and how things are going to work out. But I’m guessing you already know the difference between fantasy and reality.”
“Yeah. Harry Potter is fiction. There’s no school for witches and wizards, no magic spells, nobody who’s going to rescue me from my life.” He quirked up one brow. “Except you just did, so maybe that part isn’t so fictional.”
Adam blinked rapidly, and tried to convince himself it was his contacts bothering him. “Well, this isn’t exactly a castle -“
“It isn’t?” Kurt interrupted with a grin. “Sure coulda fooled me.”
“Ha ha. I was going to say, and I’m no prince,”
“But you’re better looking than the British royals. I’ve seen them in Emma’s magazines when she wasn’t looking,” he confessed.
Adam felt absurdly pleased by the compliment.
“Well, thank you. I was going to say, I’ll do what I can to make your life happier than you expected. It might just take a while for us both to figure out what we want out of this relationship.”
Kurt scrunched his face up as he looked at Adam. “Don’t you know what you want?”
“Ah, that’s a good question. Sometimes what we want, and what’s best for us, are different things. So,” Adam rubbed his hands together. “This is the loveseat, the sofa, and the recliner, and the stereo equipment is there. By the way, this room and the living room are sound-proofed very well, so we can turn up the volume if we want and not disturb either Lily or Misty.”
“Who’s Misty?” Kurt wondered.
“She lives with Lily. You’ll meet her the day after tomorrow. We’re going over at 3:00 in the afternoon for cookies and tea for me, and cookies and lemonade for you. Unless you’d prefer tea.”
“Which do you want me to drink?”
Adam blinked, taken aback by the question. “It doesn’t matter, Kurt, whichever you prefer. I don’t want you drinking alcohol, that’s not legal or wise for you, but other than that, it’s your choice.”
“My choice,” Kurt marveled.
“As I’ve said, there are lots of things for you to get used to. Now, next door is my bedroom. I’ll show it to you briefly, and we can try to find some easier books for you to read, or something I can read to you.”
“I’d like that,” Kurt agreed.
Next - Chapter 9