Fic: Lullaby
Summary: Summer, a cabin by the lake, and a grumpy teenager in tow. In other words, the perfect family vacation. Isn't it?
Rating: PG-13-ish?
A/N: Originally written for the klainebingo prompt "Future" as a cute little drabble. So naturally it turned into almost 10k. Anyway, here it is! I admit that the seasonal timing is a little off, but hey, I only missed summer by almost two months!
“But we go there every year, it's boring,” Tracy complains, arms crossed in front of her chest, and Blaine watches amused as Kurt meets her glare in the rear-view mirror.
“We go every year because it's a lovely place and I'm sure you'll be having a lot of fun once we get there. You always used to, all those many, many years we've been going there.”
“There's just nothing to do there,” she sulks, shoulders slumped, eyebrows drawn together angrily.
Blaine shakes his head, shifting around in the passenger seat to catch her eyes. “What about swimming? And game nights? And -”
“Game nights?” Tracy looks at him as if he's completely lost his mind. “Oh, that's just wonderful. Yes, everyone will be so jealous when I tell them about my summer! I mean, Amy only went to Paris with her older brother and his girlfriend. I, on the other hand, get to spend weeks playing Scrabble and Candy Land with my fathers!”
Blaine hesitates, smile faltering a little. “I also packed Monopoly.”
“Well, that's so very nice to hear, dad,” Tracy says, and looks away, making it more than clear that this particular conversation may be over, but the topic is, by no means, exhausted.
“Hey,” Kurt says softly, taking one hand off the steering wheel to pat Blaine's knee. “I'll gladly play Monopoly with you every day. It sounds lovely.”
Blaine threads their fingers together and smiles at him and oh, they'll have the best time once Tracy stops sulking; two weeks with no work, just their happy little family being happy together. “I love you,” he says.
“I love you too,” Kurt says back, squeezing his fingers to the sound of their fifteen-year old daughter faking gagging noises in the backseat.
**
They've rented the same cabin every summer for the past seven years and they know their way around, so as soon as they have their things stored away and the windows opened to let in some fresh air, they take a walk down to the dock, a very disgruntled Tracy trailing a few steps behind, sighing loudly every time Kurt and Blaine try talking to her.
Down at the dock she makes a point of sitting several feet away from them, feet dangling over the surface of the lake, a scowl on her face to prove how very bored she is already with this vacation.
Kurt slides an arm around Blaine's waist, kisses his hair as Blaine rests his head on his shoulder, and even with a moody teenager in tow it's easy enjoying this first day of their well-deserved vacation. Blaine is quite sure that Tracy will come around eventually, she always used to love it here and fifteen can't be too old to go on a family vacation, right?
**
They're on their way back up to the cabin when a group of people starts making their way down the path they're walking up - the family renting the adjoining cabin, Blaine presumes. The parents look a bit older than the two of them and there's a little girl running circles around them and singing something at the top of her lungs, and a tall, lanky teenager trailing behind them, looking just as bored as their very own teenager who still doesn't seem to be warming up to the idea of being here.
Since they're going to be sharing a dock for the next few weeks, Blaine and Kurt stop to shake hands with the new arrivals who introduce themselves as the Hammonds. Blaine keeps looking over his shoulder for Tracy to introduce her too only to find her suddenly standing with her shoulders straight, a sunny smile on her face as she flips her hair over her shoulder looking right at …
Oh no. Oh no.
“...And this is Josh, he's too old for family vacations and doesn't really want to be here -”
“Mom!”
“You don't honey, you've been complaining all the way up here. And that blur you see running and screaming is Sally, she's five. Anyway, it's nice to meet you. You too, Tracy!”
Blaine watches in fascination as Tracy just nods, all smiles and politeness, offering her hand to everyone in turn, Josh last of all. And there's a look there that he doesn't miss, stomach sinking as his eyebrows draw together with worry.
He looks to Kurt for help, but Kurt looks completely caught up in checking the time and then dragging Blaine behind himself back up to their cabin, Tracy following with a new spring in her step.
And Blaine feels panic rising in his chest.
**
Once they're back at the cabin Tracy goes right back to sulking, but it seems like a somewhat half-hearted attempt now and whenever she thinks they're not looking, her face just goes thoughtful, eyes darting toward the window that looks out over the grounds toward the second cabin.
Blaine follows her gaze, then catches Kurt's eyes, his own wide and panicked. Kurt looks back tight-lipped and one eyebrow raised and Blaine can always, always read his husband, but right now this look could either mean 'I know what you're worried about but I already have a plan in place to make sure our neighbors leave tomorrow' or 'You're being entirely ridiculous please stop acting like a lunatic for five minutes.' Blaine prefers to think it's option number one.
They make burritos for dinner and then they do play Monopoly (and Kurt wins) and by the time they all go to bed, Blaine has calmed down and all but forgotten about that brief moment of panic this afternoon. They're on vacation and he gets to spend two lazy weeks in a beautiful place with the two people he loves more than anything else in this entire world, and isn't life just great?
He hugs Tracy goodnight and even though she's fifteen and dad, please, oh my god I'm not five anymore you don't need to tuck me in she hugs him back and then hugs Kurt and even has a smile for both of them.
Teeth brushed and pajamas on, Blaine lets Kurt spoon up behind him, closes his eyes feeling safe and warm and so happy being held by the love of his life, knowing their daughter is safely asleep in the second bedroom.
Summer vacations are the best thing.
**
The weather is beautiful the next day, so they decide to spend it out on the dock. Blaine watches with a grin as Kurt and Tracy chase each other down to the lake, running out over the dock to dive head-first into the water - their competitiveness is always especially fun on game nights, and it's definitely something she picked up from Kurt - coming back up to laugh and splash around until Kurt climbs back up onto the dock and Tracy turns away for a short swim.
Blaine, at a more dignified pace, follows after them carrying their towels and books, because somebody has to and also because Kurt and Tracy had set off without him before he could even so much as complain about it. He'll simply have to make sure to not again be the last one out of the door the next day.
He doesn't mind trailing behind for once, though, especially not when, as soon as he's put their things down on the wooden planks, he's being thanked by an armful of laughing, dripping-wet husband hugging him in close, kissing him firmly and pressing his wet-cold skin against Blaine's sun-warmed dry skin.
He pushes Kurt's wet hair back from his forehead, kisses his nose. “I don't know if I tell you this enough,” he says, smiling because he can't not. “But you're entirely adorable and I'm ridiculously glad to be married to you.”
Even after almost three decades together, Kurt still blushes sometimes at the things Blaine says to him. “Likewise,” he says, his answering smile so pleased, relaxed, happy. “I love you a lot, you know?”
“I know,” Blaine says, nuzzling their faces together. “That works out really well too, because I'm really, ridiculously, head-over-heels in love with you, and after twenty-seven years of knowing you I don't think that's ever gonna go away.”
“I hope it doesn't,” Kurt whispers, and kisses him for real, because they're alone for the moment and because they're married and they love each other a ridiculous amount and because they just simply want to.
They join Tracy in the water eventually, it really is the perfect weather for swimming, and by the time they all make it back to the dock, stretched out on their blankets and sunbathing, Blaine is actually beginning to feel a little bit hungry. Maybe they could think about a mid-morning snack or an early lunch sometime soon...
“Oh hey, how nice to meet you guys here!”
He looks up, squinting against the sun, and it's the Hammonds from next door, carrying their own blankets and books and looking genuinely pleased to see them. And Blaine is pleased too, he likes them, they're nice people, only then they start spreading out their blankets and the dock is big enough for all of them but still that Josh guy somehow ends up sitting next to Tracy and Tracy is smiling at him and saying something and Blaine feels very, very uncomfortable all of a sudden.
He tries to take part in the conversation Kurt already has going with the parents, and he thinks he manages well enough, but he can't stop looking over to where his baby daughter is now actually talking quite animatedly to that awkward skinny teenaged boy and that boy is looking back at her like she's some sort of a miracle and well she is, but … oh god, oh god, he doesn't like this, he doesn't like it at all.
**
“He's flirting with her,” Blaine tells Kurt that night as they're getting ready for bed, Kurt sitting on the edge of the mattress shaking out the shirt he just took off.
“Yes, he is.”
“She is fifteen.”
“Yes, I know how old she is, she's our daughter.”
“Kurt, that boy is flirting with our fifteen-year old daughter!”
“She's actually flirting back, Blaine. I think she likes him.”
Blaine gapes at his husband. “How can you be so calm about this? She is fifteen years old -”
“And he is sixteen, they're actually pretty much the same age, they're both teenagers. It's all really kind of … sweet, don't you think?” Kurt keeps his face lowered, hands working very precisely on folding up his shirt, then grabbing for the discarded shorts.
“We have to go home,” Blaine exclaims, starts pacing the floor. “We can't stay here. We have to go home and then we're moving back to Ohio, we're both Dalton alumni, I'm sure we can get her into Crawford Country Day on relatively short notice -”
“Please stop,” Kurt says, looking up, jaw set tight as he gets up to resolutely grab Blaine's discarded clothes from earlier off the dresser, “And listen to yourself for just a moment.”
“...And then we'll have to find an all-girls college for her in a few years, do you think maybe if I call -”
“Please don't call anyone,” Kurt interrupts, and Blaine looks over to where Kurt has now finished folding Blaine's clothes as well and is busy randomly refolding things from the dresser that had already been neat and tidy before. “You're completely overreacting.”
Blaine stops, takes a breath. “Kurt?”
“What?”
“If you're so cool with this, then why are you refolding all of our clothes?”
Kurt's hands clench in a pair of Blaine's striped boxer briefs before he shakes them out, lays them across the dresser and smooths them over before putting them back in the drawer. “I'm fine.”
“You're as freaked out as I am.”
“Not at all. I'm fine.”
“You think she's too young too.”
“She is fifteen. She's old enough to - start thinking - about -” he closes his eyes, breathes out, yanks a pile of shirts from a drawer, drops them in a heap, and starts refolding them methodically.
“You think that this Josh guy is -”
“I want to strangle him in his sleep,” Kurt growls, spinning around to Blaine, eyes sparkling furiously as he waves a vintage McQueen shirt at him. “And, I mean, what kind of a name is Josh anyway? It just sounds so … ugh, you know what I mean. And he probably has three other girlfriends at home already and I bet he has terrible grades and I don't want him anywhere near our little baby girl!”
Blaine almost jumps up and down in triumph. “I knew you weren't okay with this, I knew I wasn't the only one completely freaking out -”
“Yeah, well.” Kurt still looks furious. “If we make them think we're not fine with it, they'll start sneaking around behind our backs and I'd much rather keep an eye on what they're doing.”
Blaine's face falls. “Oh. I didn't think of that.”
“And if all else fails, we'll - I don't know.”
“Go home?”
Kurt's shoulders slump and he lowers the hand still clutching the shirt. “We are totally overreacting, aren't we?”
Blaine swallows, and there's the panic again. “A little. But Kurt - she's fifteen!”
Kurt drops the shirt onto the dresser, takes a deep breath, bows his head. When he looks back up at Blaine, there's a wry smile on his face. “We were barely older than they are now when we met.”
Blaine feels his eyes widen. “But that was different. I mean - we were … us. We were us, you know? You and me. We're different. With you, it was never -”
“Never what?” Kurt asks, quietly, eyes full of that deep fondness that always makes Blaine's heart beat faster even after all these years.
“We weren't just trying,” he says, voice low. “It was never like that, with us. It wasn't experimenting, it was … more. From the first minute. You were - I knew from the first moment I kissed you that I never wanted to kiss anyone else ever again.”
Kurt lets out a soft, embarrassed laugh, lifting a hand to his eyes for just a second before shaking his head at Blaine, cheeks pink and eyes full of love. “You were always forever for me too,” he says, and Blaine can't help the grin spreading across his face, it never stops being amazing, being with Kurt.
“But don't you think,” Kurt starts again, “That it can feel like that for other people too sometimes? Even if they're not necessarily right about it all of the time?”
“You think Josh is The One for Tracy? Seriously?”
“No. I mean … the point is, he doesn't have to be.” Kurt sighs. “Who knows. Maybe he is. Maybe they'll never want to see each other again by the end of this summer. It's just - I don't think we can really do anything except … let them figure it out on their own.”
“Yeah, I know,” Blaine sighs, slipping his arms around Kurt's waist, resting his forehead against Kurt's and closing his eyes. “...I really don't wanna do that.”
Kurt laughs. “Oh, believe me. I'm not thrilled either. But our daughter is fifteen. She's growing up. I guess we'll just have to get used to this sooner or later.”
“I guess,” Blaine agrees, and cuddles closer to Kurt. “Do you still want to strangle him in his sleep, though?”
Kurt chuckles, wrapping his arms around Blaine's shoulders and nuzzling their faces together. “I actually liked your plan of sending Tracy to an all-girls school in the middle of nowhere. But I doubt that would make us win any Parents of the Year Awards with her.”
Blaine makes a little unhappy sound. “Being a parent sucks.”
“You love it.”
He sighs. “Yeah. Yeah, most of the time, I really sort of do.”
**
He tries. He tries so very hard to not hover, to just read his book, or at least pretend to be reading his book, while his daughter who is really still just a kid and according to his memory was still playing with dolls and wearing braids in her hair just a day ago is sitting on the other end of the dock next to several feet of thin lanky teenage boy, throwing her lovely brown hair back over her shoulder and laughing at something he said to her.
Blaine glowers at them over his book, hands gripping on so tight his knuckles are turning white and he clenches his teeth, hard.
“You're going to rip out the pages if you don't relax a little,” Kurt murmurs next to his ear under the pretense of resting his head on Blaine's shoulder.
“I'm fine.”
“I think that's my line.”
“You do seem incredibly relaxed about all of this!” It comes out almost accusing, and Kurt snorts in response, shows Blaine the magazine he'd been reading. The corners are frayed and bent and the edges ripped lightly.
“I'm just better at hiding it,” he says.
Blaine turns his head, kisses Kurt's hair. “I'm sorry, darling. This can't be good for your back, you get so tense when you're stressed -”
“I'm fine.”
Blaine dips his head to catch his eyes, smiling affectionately. “You really have to stop saying that, you know? We both know it's not true.”
Kurt sighs. “Will you give me a backrub later? I'll pay you back with a -” his eyes dart around the little group currently assembled all around them before he leans in closer, voice sinking to a whisper, close to Blaine's ear. “Blow job.”
Blaine captures his lips in a quick kiss, beaming. “Deal. I'm looking forward to it!”
**
Blaine pushes the door open with his elbow, trying not to drop either of the two heavy shopping bags in his arms, eyebrows drawn together in concentration as he shifts his grip just a little to keep the whole thing from sliding -
“Here, let me help you with that,” Kurt speaks up right next to him, and then there's another pair of hands carefully lifting one of the bags from his arms before it has a chance to fall and spill its contents all over the cabin floor.
“Thanks!”
“Did you get everything?” Kurt asks, peering into the bag as he carries it through into the tiny kitchen corner, Blaine following close behind.
“Yup. Even found those chips that you love so much, that alone took me, like, ten minutes, I don't understand how that store is arranged -”
“Thank you,” Kurt says, setting his bag down on the counter and waiting for Blaine to do the same before pressing a quick kiss to his lips. “Why don't you pour us a glass of wine while I start dinner?”
Blaine frowns. “Where's Tracy?”
Kurt bites his lip, looking mildly worried, hesitates before he answers. “...She's over at the Hammond's for dinner.”
Blaine feels his jaw drop, eyes widening. “Josh's parents? You just let her - She's over there all alone? What did you - Why didn't you -”
“Blaine,” Kurt says in his calmest voice that usually means he's not calm at all, placing both hands on Blaine's shoulders. “What was I supposed to do?”
“What do you mean?” Blaine almost shouts. “You could have said no!”
Kurt sighs. “Yeah, but. Why?”
“What do you mean?”
Kurt rolls his eyes. “For what reason, Blaine?”
Blaine shakes his head, pressing his lips together briefly. “Because - because -” He lets his shoulders slump forward, can already feel the headache coming on. “Oh. Right.”
“Look.” Kurt squeezes his shoulders, a little too tightly, and now that Blaine really looks he can see the set of his jaw, the controlled nervousness in his eyes. “She is having dinner with their family. That's all. It's actually kind of cute, don't you think? And she's going to be home by ten, which is an early curfew for summer vacation at a place where they can't even go anywhere that we can't see, wouldn't you agree?”
Blaine shrugs. “I guess. I … panicked. Sorry.”
“This is just -” Kurt drops his hands, and suddenly looks tired. “It's all happening so fast. That's our problem, I guess.”
“She really likes him, doesn't she?”
Kurt flickers a small, tired grin at him. “I think she does.”
Blaine shakes his head sadly. “What if he breaks her heart?”
“Then we are there for her if she needs us.”
“Yeah. Okay.” He takes a deep breath, laughs. “You know, I've been thinking a lot about - What do you think it was like for our parents? You know, back when we first started dating? I mean, we kind of broke curfew a lot of the time and oh my god that time before we were even together and I went to your dad to convince him to give you the sex talk?”
Kurt groans, hiding his face behind his hands. “I don't even want to think about it. Or that time you got drunk at Rachel's party and I took you home with me? And my dad found you in my bed the next morning?”
Blaine grins, takes a step closer to Kurt to pry his hands off his face, lacing their fingers together instead and swinging their hands between them. “You know, back then, I always considered us - both of us - completely low-maintenance and very well-behaved compared to our peers.”
“I guess we were,” Kurt says, seeming to think about it. “Compared to most of our friends.”
“Still must have been an interesting time for our parents. I thought they were being completely unreasonable when they wouldn't let you stay over or kept checking in on us when we were just cuddling in front of the TV.”
“Ugh, yes.” Kurt rolls his eyes. “I mean, I knew my dad liked you, but he still wouldn't stop with all those rules and I used to think it was so unfair because it wasn't like I was bringing home random guys, it was you. I wondered how he couldn't see the difference.”
Blaine has to kiss him before he can speak again, because Kurt can't talk about his sixteen-year-old self being so sure of their love for each other and expect to not be kissed. “I guess it's difficult, being a teenager,” he admits. “I remember how much I hated those rules, I only wanted to be with you.”
“Well.” Kurt kisses him again, hugs him around the shoulders and rests their foreheads together gently. “We did find enough ways around the rules, didn't we? Empty house make-out sessions. Midnight phone calls under the covers. That night at your house after the opening of West Side Story -” He falls silent very quickly, body stiffening a little in Blaine's arms.
Blaine feels his face go cold for a moment, breath catching as he remembers that particular night, Kurt in his arms, so pale and beautiful and warm, the look on his face and the way the sweat glistened on his skin as they -
“We're never leaving our house empty ever again,” he decides, voice firm. “We'll have to make sure to never be at work at the same time and when we both really actually cannot be home we'll hire a house sitter, or we'll install cameras everywhere -”
“Artie has access to all kinds of cool camera equipment, do you think he can get us a discount?” Kurt asks, lifting his head to meet Blaine's eyes.
They look at each other. They breathe. For a moment, they don't move.
This time, Blaine is the first to blink and twitch his mouth up in a small, embarrassed grin. “We're doing it again, aren't we?”
Kurt answers his grin with a shy one of his own, blushes. “We are terrible parents. We really need to … relax. Don't we?”
“I bought wine,” Blaine reminds him. “We could … have a picnic, out on the dock?”
Kurt sighs. “If we bring the folding chairs. It's just, my back -”
Blaine nods, groans. “God, I know. My knees too.”
“When did we get so old?” Kurt asks, but he doesn't look unhappy about it. “Look at us standing in a holiday cabin worrying about our teenage daughter and complaining about aching joints...”
Blaine smiles, nudges his nose against Kurt's. “So, we're not sixteen anymore,” he says. “But … I wouldn't mind recreating some of those memories of all those nights in my empty house; do you remember that time we got snowed in and my parents couldn't come home and we … you remember, don't you? In front of the fireplace and with the hot chocolate -”
Kurt hums a little under his breath, places a long, lingering kiss to Blaine's mouth. “I remember. Vividly. And also, it's only after five and we have the cabin to ourselves until ten, so ...”
“Are you very hungry, because it's kind of early for dinner and I think it could wait another hour or so,” Blaine asks eagerly, pushing his hips forward against Kurt's because he may not be sixteen anymore, but he has an unfairly attractive and incredibly sexy husband and sometimes that leads to situations that need taking care of very, very immediately...
“Dinner can wait,” Kurt decides resolutely, places his hands on Blaine's hips and starts leading him backwards toward their bedroom. “There are more … urgent matters to attend to right now.”
“I love you so much,” Blaine breathes, and lets himself be led to wherever Kurt wants him. In almost three decades, he's always liked where they ended up.
**
“Can you see anything?” Kurt whispers, standing so close his breath is brushing the back of Blaine's neck as he speaks.
“They're just standing there,” Blaine whispers back. “God, who even built this window, this angle is really uncomfortable for seeing anything out on the porch -”
“I guess the architect didn't really consider the tenants' needs to spy on their teenage daughter,” Kurt comments, then drops his head to let his forehead rest against the back of Blaine's shoulder. “Blaine, what are we doing?”
Blaine takes Kurt's hand where Kurt's arm is wrapped around his stomach, gently strokes his knuckles with his thumb. “I know, this is - okay, oh my god, oh my -”
“What is happening,” Kurt hisses, arm tightening around Blaine's middle as he crowds in to press his own face against the window next to Blaine's, effectively pinning Blaine between his body and the wall.
“Ow, Kurt, stop it,” Blaine complains, wriggling a little to get some breathing room, slipping a leg between both of Kurt's who tries to twist around him at the very same moment, and together they lose their balance and go crashing to the floor, taking the coat rack with them, knocking the metal key bowl off the end table by the door as they go down.
Blaine just lies there shocked and breathing carefully for a moment half on top of Kurt before his brain registers what just happened.
“Oh,” Kurt says, sounding a little stunned.
“That was loud,” Blaine adds.
“Do you think they heard that?” Kurt asks sheepishly.
“Maybe they were … distracted?” Blaine suggests.
Kurt sighs, pushing at Blaine's shoulders to free himself and struggle into a sitting position. “God, I hope not! What were they even doing out there?”
Blaine pushes himself up onto his knees, bites his lip, blushing. “Nothing it - it just looked like they were going to kiss, but I think … I might have … overreacted? Just a bit?”
Kurt lets out a long breath, eyes closed, and when he looks back up at Blaine, he seems worried. “Are we going crazy, Blaine? Are we completely losing our minds? What are we even doing?”
Blaine shrugs, trying to sulk because that's easier than admitting Kurt is right. However … “Your dad always used to open the door and ask what we were doing when we kept saying goodnight out on the porch for too long. And we both know the curtains at my parents' house didn't just move on their own, my mom was always spying after us. This is not … We're not …”
Kurt lets out a long breath, lifts himself off the ground and stands up before offering Blaine a hand to pull him to his feet. “I know. But maybe we should actually take a step back here. Tracy is a good kid. And they're out on the front porch, what are they going to do out there? Realistically?”
Blaine hangs his head, and he feels so old sometimes. “No, you're right. I guess … we can give them a few more minutes before we go out there to scare the crap out of them.”
Kurt keeps hold of his hand, squeezing lightly in a gesture that could be nervous or reassuring, Blaine isn't quite sure right now how to read him. “Let's go make tea. If we're done with that and they're still out there, you can do the honors of taking a stroll outside to check on the weather. Deal?”
“Fine.” Blaine squeezes his hand back, and kind of misses the days when family vacations were actually relaxing. Or … at least he thinks they used to be? Whatever kept him up at night back then seems so much simper in retrospect.
They're leaning against the kitchen counter waiting for the water to boil when the front door slams and footsteps approach just a little too loudly to not seem angry, and then they're faced with a very stern looking Tracy, hands on her hips and eyebrows drawn together.
“Hey, sweetie, how was -” Kurt begins, but she holds up a hand, lips pressed together, effectively silencing the both of them. Blaine is amazed sometimes how many gestures she picked up from Kurt, wonders if Kurt finds as many things in her that remind him of Blaine.
“Don't even!” She glares at them. “I know what you were doing. Not that it wasn't completely obvious from the noise, are you actively trying to ruin my life?”
Blaine lowers his head, feeling guilty, but Kurt stares back at her, tight-lipped expression matching hers almost exactly. “We are your parents, we are allowed to worry about you and make sure you're okay.”
“By demolishing a lake cabin?” Tracy asks, staring incredulously, waving a hand at the mess by the front door that they haven't had the time to clean up yet.
“That was an accident,” Blaine tries.
“Yeah, well.” She huffs out a breath, crosses her arms in front of her chest. “Josh thinks you don't like him.”
“What? That's crazy, we -” Blaine starts, but Kurt interrupts.
“We don't really know Josh, do we? We neither like nor dislike him. But since he seems to be important to you, we should have him over for dinner, I guess. How does tomorrow sound?”
Tracy groans, rolling her eyes at them. “Dad, please, we only have like six more days here, it's not like I'm marrying him. You don't need to -”
“Tomorrow,” Kurt repeats. “I assume you're going to call him once you're in your room anyway, so you can invite him right away to make sure he can make it.”
“I hate you,” Tracy says, spinning around and walking away.
“We just want to get to know him,” Kurt calls after her. “It's just dinner, you were over at their house for dinner too! It's only polite that we return the favor.”
“Whatever,” Tracy calls back at them and slams her door so hard the windows rattle in their frames.
Kurt slumps sideways into Blaine, hiding his face against his shoulder. “Ugh.”
Blaine kisses his temple, rubs his back where he's sure Kurt is tensing up again. “Dinner is a great idea,” he assures him.
“I feel like an asshole for even suggesting it, the way she reacted.”
“You're not. This is a good idea.”
“Why are you so calm all of a sudden?” Kurt asks, turning a little so he can lean into the half-embrace better. “Not that I'm complaining, but -”
Blaine shrugs. “I don't know. We can't both freak out at the same time.”
“'m not freaking out.”
“I'm not either.”
Kurt presses his cold nose against Blaine's neck, hugs him around the waist. “I'll need a vacation after this vacation. To recover from all of this.”
“Yeah.” Blaine laughs. “God, yeah. Me too.”
**
Balance is restored in Blaine's mind over dinner the next night when he can go back to being the nervous, fluttery wreck and Kurt goes back to making polite conversation with Josh and squeezing Blaine's thigh under the table to calm him down.
Blaine tries too hard being polite which, in his case, always sort of comes out as almost creepily nice, so during most of the dinner, he busies himself refilling everyone's drinks, going back and forth between the table and the kitchen to pick up things nobody needs, and letting Kurt and Tracy carry the main part of the conversation.
At least Josh is quiet too, which leaves Blaine feeling strangely relieved - the boy is obviously nervous and obviously trying to impress them, which is no less than his daughter deserves out of a boyfriend.
And yet Josh obviously isn't too nervous to, almost absentmindedly, take Tracy's hand once they're done with dessert, just holding it in his own between them on the table top.
Blaine reaches for Kurt under the table, curling his fingers into his leg in a tight grip that makes Kurt jump a little in his chair mid-sentence.
He shoots Blaine a worried look and Blaine looks back apologetically, trying to relax his grip a little until Kurt slides his own hand under the table to pry Blaine's fingers off his thigh and lace them with his own instead.
“So, you play the guitar?” he asks Josh, seeming so focused and interested and nice Blaine thinks that at least Tracy will have no reason to be mad at them after this dinner.
“And the piano too,” Josh confirms. “And I sing. Not very well, but it's fun. I mean, I haven't decided yet, but I think I'd like to be a music teacher eventually.”
“Well, you're young, you have time to decide,” Kurt says. “But if you like music that much, I'd always say stick with it. Worked out well for the both of us,” he adds, throwing Blaine a look that's so calm and normal Blaine has really no idea how he does it.
“Not so much for me,” Tracy says, laughing, her hand still in Josh's. “I've been trying to get out of piano lessons for years now.”
“You've only been trying to get out of them for a few weeks now, actually,” Kurt corrects her, “And I still think you should stick it out a little longer.”
“Well, we don't have to talk about that tonight,” Tracy decides, pushing her chair back. “Actually, Josh and I were thinking about going for a walk, is that okay?”
Kurt tilts his head at them and Blaine just watches, he knows that way Kurt's eyes just sort of flash amusement for a fraction of a second, Kurt is having fun. “You know, that sounds lovely, we might just accompany you, it looks like it's such a beautiful night -”
Tracy looks horrified. “Daddy, come on, seriously -”
Kurt laughs, his knee nudging Blaine's under the table in barely held-back glee. “Oh my god, don't look at me like that, I was joking. Go. Go! Before I change my mind and insist you two play Monopoly with the two of us until your curfew.”
Tracy seems in more of a hurry to get out of the cabin than Josh does, who actually hangs back even as she's tugging at his hand. Josh stops for a moment, bites his lip as he glances shyly up at Kurt and Blaine who are trailing behind them toward the front door to see them out.
“Thanks for having me over,” he says politely, and okay, Blaine thinks, maybe he's not a bad guy after all. “It was nice. And I promise we'll be back by ten at the latest.”
Blaine looks at Kurt who looks back at him and Blaine knows what Kurt is about to suggest and, oh, whatever, Josh is a nice kid and the farthest those two can go is the dock. The cabin has a perfect view of the dock from pretty much every front-facing window.
“Eleven,” Kurt says. “Eleven is early enough.”
The smile Tracy gives them before tugging her date out the door is totally worth it, Blaine thinks.
**
They're lying side by side on the dock in the afternoon sun, Tracy and Josh off to see a movie in the little town nearby and the rest of the Hammond family out shopping while the teenagers are on their date. Which leaves only Kurt and Blaine by the lake for an entire afternoon and Blaine feels sleepy, content, not as worried as he still was a few days ago, which is progress, he's getting used to this.
“So, three more days before going home,” Kurt says, rolling onto his side and sliding a hand into Blaine's hair to play with his curls.
“Tracy is taking it really well,” Blaine comments. “You know. Leaving her boyfriend behind and all that.”
“The Hammonds only live two hours away,” Kurt reminds him. “Why do you think she's so excited about getting her driver's license soon?”
“She's not driving two hours to be with a boy,” Blaine says resolutely. Seriously. He may be a cool, easy-going dad now who is totally fine with his daughter having a boyfriend, but he has to draw a line somewhere.
“Josh talked to me earlier,” Kurt says, mouth twitching like he's trying not to smile. “Apparently they are planning to write to each other. That's sweet, right?”
“What did he talk to you for, then?” Blaine asks, feeling suspicious.
“He just wanted to know if we'd be willing to … you know. Let them meet up sometimes. Meet in the middle. Or have him stay over. On the couch.” Kurt adds. “With me camping out on the stairs all night; just mentioning that before you start worrying too much again.”
“...That is actually really sweet,” Blaine says, draping an arm over Kurt's waist and closing his eyes, it's all he can do not to purr when Kurt plays with his hair like that...
“I guess they really do like each other.”
“Driving two hours just for a date?” Blaine sighs. “I guess they do.”
Kurt is quiet for a moment. “Remember when you were at Dalton and I was at McKinley?”
Blaine blinks his eyes open, a slow, warm smile spreading across his face. “Or you in New York and me in Lima.”
“We made it work. We screwed up too, but in the end, we always made it work.”
“We did. But then, we are perfect for each other.”
Kurt hums, leans in to kiss him. “We are.”
“It was hard, though. Sometimes. It wasn't always easy.”
“No, it wasn't.”
“But yeah. We never let a few hours of distance keep us from trying either.” He pauses, just taking a moment to look at his husband, his Kurt, the man he has loved since he was a teenager. “I can't imagine any kid of distance ever keeping me from trying, when it comes to you,” he says. “Even when we were just kids. I would have walked from Westerville to Lima on foot just to see you.”
Kurt touches his fingertips to the side of Blaine's face, his eyes so gentle and loving and warm as he looks at Blaine. “If you had lived on the moon I would have found a way to get there,” he says. “I started planning our wedding the day we met on those stairs.”
“And I needed months to even figure out my feelings for you,” Blaine says, still sad about that even decades later. “I don't know how I couldn't have seen -”
“But even then,” Kurt says, nuzzling their faces together. “Even when we were just friends, I knew you would have always been there for me if I needed you. In fact, you were. More than once.”
“But that wasn't -”
“It doesn't matter, Blaine,” Kurt interrupts, looking so sure, so blissfully happy, Blaine can't argue with him. “I know you love me. You make me happy. And even back then I knew I could always count on you.” He closes his eyes, cuddling in closer, bare, sun-warm skin brushing and pressing against Blaine's everywhere. “You've always made me feel safe. You always made me so sure I didn't have to go through anything alone ever again.”
“You won't ever have to,” Blaine promises. “Whatever it is, we're in it together.” He sighs. “Like raising a teenager. Which is … a challenge, a lot of the time.”
“And also very rewarding and you love it.”
“That's true,” Blaine says, holding him closer. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For always being there for me too.” He laughs softly. “I mean, shit. We've been through so much together. We can do this too, can't we?”
Kurt rubs his nose against Blaine's, laughs with him. “Of course we can. We can do anything. But right now, we should probably get in the water before we get overheated.”
“Mmm, always the voice of reason,” Blaine answers, curling up so he can hide his face against Kurt's lovely chest. “I'm comfortable, I don't wanna move!”
“Don't make me throw you in the lake!”
“You're sexy when you get all bossy!”
“You're not as sexy as you think you are when you pretend to be sleepy.”
“I am sleepy.”
“Because you've been lying in the sun for too long.”
Blaine lifts his head, scrunches his nose up at Kurt. “Almost thirty years and you still won't let me get sunstroke in peace.”
“Because I want you around for many, many more years,” Kurt says, and kisses him before rolling them over the edge of the dock and into the cool water with a splash.
Blaine shrieks, and retaliates by wrapping his arms and legs around him like a four-armed octopus and making Kurt drag him through the water on his back.
“Sometimes I can't even remember why I married you,” Kurt says gravely while he tries to stay above water with the extra weight on his back.
“Onwards, my noble steed,” Blaine cries, patting his husband's wet hair. “Carry me safely to shore and you shall be richly rewarded -”
“Seriously, can't remember what the hell it was that made me say yes,” Kurt grumbles, and turns in the water to dip Blaine under the surface.
**
Blaine comes back out of the bathroom, folding up his robe. It's their last night here and he's packed up almost everything they won't be needing the next morning. That way they'll have more time for one last swim, one leisurely walk around the lake … He hates leaving but on the other hand, he's also looking forward to sleeping in his own bed again, to being back in familiar surroundings, he loves their house. He loves the home they have all made together and whether it's here or at the lake, he's always happy as long as he has the people he loves with him. It's just that at home he has the good mattress, he knows Kurt misses it too, his back must be killing him by now.
“As much as I'll miss this place, I am looking forward to our own bed,” Blaine says, stepping into the living room where Kurt is supposed to be cleaning, only the room is empty. Blaine looks around, lowering the robe, confused. “Kurt?”
“In here,” comes Kurt's voice, small and undeniably sad from the direction of the second bedroom. Tracy's room.
Brow furrowed, Blaine puts down the robe and walks over, steps through the door to find Kurt sitting on the edge of the bed holding a little stuffed animal in his hands. It's shaped like a duck and he recognizes it easily as one of Tracy's first toys, one they bought for her shortly after they got her and apparently she still takes it to bed with her even now, even when she's old enough to currently be out for a walk with her boyfriend.
“What's going on?” Blaine asks, making his way over to the bed and carefully sitting down next to Kurt.
Kurt stares down at the little yellow duck in his hands and shakes his head, eyes glistening. “I just - I was putting her sweater in her room so she could pack it later and I saw this thing sitting on her pillow and I just -”
“That's Puppy,” Blaine says, smiling at the name their baby daughter had picked for the little duck despite many assurances that it was, in fact, not a little dog. She had insisted. And the name had stuck.
“Yeah. Silly name for a duck.” Kurt sniffles a little and Blaine wraps an arm around his shoulders shuffling closer. He doesn't like seeing his husband upset.
“Hey, what's … are you okay? What's wrong, sweetheart?”
Kurt wipes his eyes with one hand, letting out a sound that's half between an embarrassed little laugh and a sob. “I'm just being silly, I -” he takes a deep breath. “Remember when we got this for her?”
Blaine nods. “Car ride, back in Ohio, from some dinner at my parents' back to your family for a visit, I don't remember the occasion -”
“It was Thanksgiving, wasn't it?” Kurt says, sniffling again and rolling his eyes. “God, I don't even remember it was so long ago -”
“She wouldn't stop crying and nothing would work and then we stopped for gas and you went inside to pay and when you came back out you had that little duck with you and you gave it to her.” Blaine smiles. “She stopped crying immediately and was calm for the entire rest of the drive.”
Kurt laughs again, even though he still sounds sad. “It was a total impulse decision, we were both exhausted and still had a long way to go and she was really upset and I didn't know how to help her, we were both still so new at this back then, we didn't know what to do half of the time.”
“I still kind of feel like that, a lot of the time,” Blaine admits.
“Me too,” Kurt says, leaning into him, letting Blaine hug him sideways, resting the side of his head against his cheek. “I just wanted her to feel better. I didn't know what to do, and then I saw that stupid stuffed toy sitting on that shelf and I just … bought it, I don't even know why.”
“And it became her favorite,” Blaine finishes the story for him. “She could never go to sleep without Puppy on the pillow next to her. She carried him everywhere. And even when she started preschool he would be sitting in her little backpack all day long, it was the only way she'd let us go home if she knew Puppy was there taking care of her -”
“I paid, like, a dollar fifty for him,” Kurt says, staring down at the duck and running a thumb over one of the many spots he had to patch him up over the years. “All those things we bought for her, while we were waiting for her, all that money we spent on toys. But she chose this ugly little thing we plucked off a shelf at a gas station because we had no idea what to do with her. That's the one she always loved most of all.”
Blaine kisses him through his hair, rubs his back comfortingly. “I feel like you're going for some kind of analogy here?”
Kurt sighs. “I don't know, Blaine. I just - she's growing up, you know? And she's going to make her own choices. And they are her choices, and they have always been her choices, and that's the way it should be, but … I'm just … I have no idea what I'm even saying,” he admits, sagging against Blaine's side.
“I think I get it anyway,” Blaine assures him. “I know what you mean. And you know I'm feeling it too.”
“I know.” Kurt pats his leg, then sits up straight, breathes in deeply, dries his eyes with the back of his hand. “I'm being stupid. I just saw Puppy on her pillow and I got all emotional, I guess we are getting old after all -”
“Hey,” Blaine says, taking the stuffed animal from Kurt's hands and placing it back on the pillow. “She may not need us to tuck her in and read her a bedtime story anymore. But we're still her dads. We're still a family. And you know that that will never change.”
“She didn't even want to come to the lake this year.”
“And yet here we are.”
“One day she won't come home for Christmas.”
“We still see your dad for Christmas every year. And my stupid-ass brother and his family too.”
“Well, yeah. But my dad is my dad. You know?”
“Kurt,” Blaine says, smiling because he loves him and because if he's sure of one thing, it's that this family will stick together as long as Kurt has anything to say about it. “I get it. Believe me, I do. But we've given her what she needs to make her own choices. At some point, we're going to have to trust in that.”
“I know.”
“And for now, she's still fifteen and we can ground her into the next millennium the first time she breaks curfew so that she won't ever do it again.”
Kurt laughs, then gives Blaine a quick hug before kissing his cheek. “You always know just how to cheer me up. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Blaine says, getting up when Kurt does to follow him back out into the living room to resume packing.
**
It's a sunny day when they leave the lake to go home again, Blaine taking the first turn driving and Kurt taking over after a late lunch at a diner along the way.
The windows are rolled down as Kurt pulls out of the parking lot and Blaine makes himself comfortable in the passenger seat, hands Kurt his sunglasses almost on autopilot when he reaches for the glove compartment.
“Thanks, honey,” Kurt says, slipping them onto his nose.
“You're welcome,” Blaine answers, watching his lovely profile as Kurt threads their way back into traffic, every minute bringing them back closer to their home and their everyday life and their responsibilities and their routines. He can't wait.
He glances into the backseat where Tracy is sitting bent over her phone, smiling dreamily as she reads something and then starts typing away a response. She already has plans to meet up with Josh two weekends from now and Blaine's stomach still starts tying itself up in knots when he thinks about it, but at the same time, he gets it. He so gets it.
He shifts his gaze back to Kurt, and it's been almost thirty years of looking at him, from every angle, in every light, at all times of day and night. He knows his face better than he knows his own, he has loved this man through everything, they have raised a wonderful kid together. The best kid, he thinks, glancing back at Tracy, because clearly there has never been a better, smarter, stronger and more perfect kid anywhere in the world.
This is his family. These are the people he loves more than anything. They're not perfect, but they're the best imperfect he has ever met in his life. And things change and it's not always easy and sometimes, they'll screw up. But at the end of the day, Blaine knows, they'll always be a part of each other.
“You know,” he says, letting his head fall back against the backrest, looking at his beautiful husband who made this all possible for him. “I'd still walk from Westerville to Lima for you. Even with my knee acting up. I hope you never doubt that.”
Kurt smiles, reaches over briefly to squeeze Blaine's hand. “I know, darling. I always know. I love you.”
“Oh my god, seriously, you two are nauseating -” Tracy speaks up from the backseat, and Kurt smirks.
“Care to read some of those texts out loud you're sharing back and forth with young Mr Hammond there?”
“They're none of your business,” Tracy shoots back, but in the rear-view mirror Blaine can see her eyes widening as she clutches her phone more tightly in her hands.
“We're paying the bills for that phone, though, so maybe we should just stop doing that,” Kurt suggests calmly, and Blaine can see how much fun he's having with this as Tracy glares at the both of them, only the little twitch at the corners of her mouth betraying her amusement and the fact that she knows exactly how very not serious Kurt is about his threats.
“You know, there's a certain DVD with a certain sickeningly sweet wedding on it, I bet the vows alone would get millions of hits on YouTube -”
“I suggest you take a minute to remember who pays your allowance and sets your curfew, young lady,” Kurt responds, and both of them are grinning now even though they still try sounding serious as they come up with new ideas for fake threats.
Blaine leans back in his seat and listens to them and doesn't even try to hide his grin, he's so happy.
And they're happy too, these people that he loves. And if Tracy does get sad because she misses her boyfriend or because they break up or because they have a fight, he knows Kurt will drop the sarcasm and the jokes in a fraction of a second and be there for her for as long as she needs him, as will Blaine. They're a family. They have each other's backs. Always.
These are the people he loves more than anything. His family. To the soothing sound of their bickering, he closes his eyes and pretends to be taking a nap while both of them try making him take their side.
Rating: PG-13-ish?
A/N: Originally written for the klainebingo prompt "Future" as a cute little drabble. So naturally it turned into almost 10k. Anyway, here it is! I admit that the seasonal timing is a little off, but hey, I only missed summer by almost two months!
“But we go there every year, it's boring,” Tracy complains, arms crossed in front of her chest, and Blaine watches amused as Kurt meets her glare in the rear-view mirror.
“We go every year because it's a lovely place and I'm sure you'll be having a lot of fun once we get there. You always used to, all those many, many years we've been going there.”
“There's just nothing to do there,” she sulks, shoulders slumped, eyebrows drawn together angrily.
Blaine shakes his head, shifting around in the passenger seat to catch her eyes. “What about swimming? And game nights? And -”
“Game nights?” Tracy looks at him as if he's completely lost his mind. “Oh, that's just wonderful. Yes, everyone will be so jealous when I tell them about my summer! I mean, Amy only went to Paris with her older brother and his girlfriend. I, on the other hand, get to spend weeks playing Scrabble and Candy Land with my fathers!”
Blaine hesitates, smile faltering a little. “I also packed Monopoly.”
“Well, that's so very nice to hear, dad,” Tracy says, and looks away, making it more than clear that this particular conversation may be over, but the topic is, by no means, exhausted.
“Hey,” Kurt says softly, taking one hand off the steering wheel to pat Blaine's knee. “I'll gladly play Monopoly with you every day. It sounds lovely.”
Blaine threads their fingers together and smiles at him and oh, they'll have the best time once Tracy stops sulking; two weeks with no work, just their happy little family being happy together. “I love you,” he says.
“I love you too,” Kurt says back, squeezing his fingers to the sound of their fifteen-year old daughter faking gagging noises in the backseat.
**
They've rented the same cabin every summer for the past seven years and they know their way around, so as soon as they have their things stored away and the windows opened to let in some fresh air, they take a walk down to the dock, a very disgruntled Tracy trailing a few steps behind, sighing loudly every time Kurt and Blaine try talking to her.
Down at the dock she makes a point of sitting several feet away from them, feet dangling over the surface of the lake, a scowl on her face to prove how very bored she is already with this vacation.
Kurt slides an arm around Blaine's waist, kisses his hair as Blaine rests his head on his shoulder, and even with a moody teenager in tow it's easy enjoying this first day of their well-deserved vacation. Blaine is quite sure that Tracy will come around eventually, she always used to love it here and fifteen can't be too old to go on a family vacation, right?
**
They're on their way back up to the cabin when a group of people starts making their way down the path they're walking up - the family renting the adjoining cabin, Blaine presumes. The parents look a bit older than the two of them and there's a little girl running circles around them and singing something at the top of her lungs, and a tall, lanky teenager trailing behind them, looking just as bored as their very own teenager who still doesn't seem to be warming up to the idea of being here.
Since they're going to be sharing a dock for the next few weeks, Blaine and Kurt stop to shake hands with the new arrivals who introduce themselves as the Hammonds. Blaine keeps looking over his shoulder for Tracy to introduce her too only to find her suddenly standing with her shoulders straight, a sunny smile on her face as she flips her hair over her shoulder looking right at …
Oh no. Oh no.
“...And this is Josh, he's too old for family vacations and doesn't really want to be here -”
“Mom!”
“You don't honey, you've been complaining all the way up here. And that blur you see running and screaming is Sally, she's five. Anyway, it's nice to meet you. You too, Tracy!”
Blaine watches in fascination as Tracy just nods, all smiles and politeness, offering her hand to everyone in turn, Josh last of all. And there's a look there that he doesn't miss, stomach sinking as his eyebrows draw together with worry.
He looks to Kurt for help, but Kurt looks completely caught up in checking the time and then dragging Blaine behind himself back up to their cabin, Tracy following with a new spring in her step.
And Blaine feels panic rising in his chest.
**
Once they're back at the cabin Tracy goes right back to sulking, but it seems like a somewhat half-hearted attempt now and whenever she thinks they're not looking, her face just goes thoughtful, eyes darting toward the window that looks out over the grounds toward the second cabin.
Blaine follows her gaze, then catches Kurt's eyes, his own wide and panicked. Kurt looks back tight-lipped and one eyebrow raised and Blaine can always, always read his husband, but right now this look could either mean 'I know what you're worried about but I already have a plan in place to make sure our neighbors leave tomorrow' or 'You're being entirely ridiculous please stop acting like a lunatic for five minutes.' Blaine prefers to think it's option number one.
They make burritos for dinner and then they do play Monopoly (and Kurt wins) and by the time they all go to bed, Blaine has calmed down and all but forgotten about that brief moment of panic this afternoon. They're on vacation and he gets to spend two lazy weeks in a beautiful place with the two people he loves more than anything else in this entire world, and isn't life just great?
He hugs Tracy goodnight and even though she's fifteen and dad, please, oh my god I'm not five anymore you don't need to tuck me in she hugs him back and then hugs Kurt and even has a smile for both of them.
Teeth brushed and pajamas on, Blaine lets Kurt spoon up behind him, closes his eyes feeling safe and warm and so happy being held by the love of his life, knowing their daughter is safely asleep in the second bedroom.
Summer vacations are the best thing.
**
The weather is beautiful the next day, so they decide to spend it out on the dock. Blaine watches with a grin as Kurt and Tracy chase each other down to the lake, running out over the dock to dive head-first into the water - their competitiveness is always especially fun on game nights, and it's definitely something she picked up from Kurt - coming back up to laugh and splash around until Kurt climbs back up onto the dock and Tracy turns away for a short swim.
Blaine, at a more dignified pace, follows after them carrying their towels and books, because somebody has to and also because Kurt and Tracy had set off without him before he could even so much as complain about it. He'll simply have to make sure to not again be the last one out of the door the next day.
He doesn't mind trailing behind for once, though, especially not when, as soon as he's put their things down on the wooden planks, he's being thanked by an armful of laughing, dripping-wet husband hugging him in close, kissing him firmly and pressing his wet-cold skin against Blaine's sun-warmed dry skin.
He pushes Kurt's wet hair back from his forehead, kisses his nose. “I don't know if I tell you this enough,” he says, smiling because he can't not. “But you're entirely adorable and I'm ridiculously glad to be married to you.”
Even after almost three decades together, Kurt still blushes sometimes at the things Blaine says to him. “Likewise,” he says, his answering smile so pleased, relaxed, happy. “I love you a lot, you know?”
“I know,” Blaine says, nuzzling their faces together. “That works out really well too, because I'm really, ridiculously, head-over-heels in love with you, and after twenty-seven years of knowing you I don't think that's ever gonna go away.”
“I hope it doesn't,” Kurt whispers, and kisses him for real, because they're alone for the moment and because they're married and they love each other a ridiculous amount and because they just simply want to.
They join Tracy in the water eventually, it really is the perfect weather for swimming, and by the time they all make it back to the dock, stretched out on their blankets and sunbathing, Blaine is actually beginning to feel a little bit hungry. Maybe they could think about a mid-morning snack or an early lunch sometime soon...
“Oh hey, how nice to meet you guys here!”
He looks up, squinting against the sun, and it's the Hammonds from next door, carrying their own blankets and books and looking genuinely pleased to see them. And Blaine is pleased too, he likes them, they're nice people, only then they start spreading out their blankets and the dock is big enough for all of them but still that Josh guy somehow ends up sitting next to Tracy and Tracy is smiling at him and saying something and Blaine feels very, very uncomfortable all of a sudden.
He tries to take part in the conversation Kurt already has going with the parents, and he thinks he manages well enough, but he can't stop looking over to where his baby daughter is now actually talking quite animatedly to that awkward skinny teenaged boy and that boy is looking back at her like she's some sort of a miracle and well she is, but … oh god, oh god, he doesn't like this, he doesn't like it at all.
**
“He's flirting with her,” Blaine tells Kurt that night as they're getting ready for bed, Kurt sitting on the edge of the mattress shaking out the shirt he just took off.
“Yes, he is.”
“She is fifteen.”
“Yes, I know how old she is, she's our daughter.”
“Kurt, that boy is flirting with our fifteen-year old daughter!”
“She's actually flirting back, Blaine. I think she likes him.”
Blaine gapes at his husband. “How can you be so calm about this? She is fifteen years old -”
“And he is sixteen, they're actually pretty much the same age, they're both teenagers. It's all really kind of … sweet, don't you think?” Kurt keeps his face lowered, hands working very precisely on folding up his shirt, then grabbing for the discarded shorts.
“We have to go home,” Blaine exclaims, starts pacing the floor. “We can't stay here. We have to go home and then we're moving back to Ohio, we're both Dalton alumni, I'm sure we can get her into Crawford Country Day on relatively short notice -”
“Please stop,” Kurt says, looking up, jaw set tight as he gets up to resolutely grab Blaine's discarded clothes from earlier off the dresser, “And listen to yourself for just a moment.”
“...And then we'll have to find an all-girls college for her in a few years, do you think maybe if I call -”
“Please don't call anyone,” Kurt interrupts, and Blaine looks over to where Kurt has now finished folding Blaine's clothes as well and is busy randomly refolding things from the dresser that had already been neat and tidy before. “You're completely overreacting.”
Blaine stops, takes a breath. “Kurt?”
“What?”
“If you're so cool with this, then why are you refolding all of our clothes?”
Kurt's hands clench in a pair of Blaine's striped boxer briefs before he shakes them out, lays them across the dresser and smooths them over before putting them back in the drawer. “I'm fine.”
“You're as freaked out as I am.”
“Not at all. I'm fine.”
“You think she's too young too.”
“She is fifteen. She's old enough to - start thinking - about -” he closes his eyes, breathes out, yanks a pile of shirts from a drawer, drops them in a heap, and starts refolding them methodically.
“You think that this Josh guy is -”
“I want to strangle him in his sleep,” Kurt growls, spinning around to Blaine, eyes sparkling furiously as he waves a vintage McQueen shirt at him. “And, I mean, what kind of a name is Josh anyway? It just sounds so … ugh, you know what I mean. And he probably has three other girlfriends at home already and I bet he has terrible grades and I don't want him anywhere near our little baby girl!”
Blaine almost jumps up and down in triumph. “I knew you weren't okay with this, I knew I wasn't the only one completely freaking out -”
“Yeah, well.” Kurt still looks furious. “If we make them think we're not fine with it, they'll start sneaking around behind our backs and I'd much rather keep an eye on what they're doing.”
Blaine's face falls. “Oh. I didn't think of that.”
“And if all else fails, we'll - I don't know.”
“Go home?”
Kurt's shoulders slump and he lowers the hand still clutching the shirt. “We are totally overreacting, aren't we?”
Blaine swallows, and there's the panic again. “A little. But Kurt - she's fifteen!”
Kurt drops the shirt onto the dresser, takes a deep breath, bows his head. When he looks back up at Blaine, there's a wry smile on his face. “We were barely older than they are now when we met.”
Blaine feels his eyes widen. “But that was different. I mean - we were … us. We were us, you know? You and me. We're different. With you, it was never -”
“Never what?” Kurt asks, quietly, eyes full of that deep fondness that always makes Blaine's heart beat faster even after all these years.
“We weren't just trying,” he says, voice low. “It was never like that, with us. It wasn't experimenting, it was … more. From the first minute. You were - I knew from the first moment I kissed you that I never wanted to kiss anyone else ever again.”
Kurt lets out a soft, embarrassed laugh, lifting a hand to his eyes for just a second before shaking his head at Blaine, cheeks pink and eyes full of love. “You were always forever for me too,” he says, and Blaine can't help the grin spreading across his face, it never stops being amazing, being with Kurt.
“But don't you think,” Kurt starts again, “That it can feel like that for other people too sometimes? Even if they're not necessarily right about it all of the time?”
“You think Josh is The One for Tracy? Seriously?”
“No. I mean … the point is, he doesn't have to be.” Kurt sighs. “Who knows. Maybe he is. Maybe they'll never want to see each other again by the end of this summer. It's just - I don't think we can really do anything except … let them figure it out on their own.”
“Yeah, I know,” Blaine sighs, slipping his arms around Kurt's waist, resting his forehead against Kurt's and closing his eyes. “...I really don't wanna do that.”
Kurt laughs. “Oh, believe me. I'm not thrilled either. But our daughter is fifteen. She's growing up. I guess we'll just have to get used to this sooner or later.”
“I guess,” Blaine agrees, and cuddles closer to Kurt. “Do you still want to strangle him in his sleep, though?”
Kurt chuckles, wrapping his arms around Blaine's shoulders and nuzzling their faces together. “I actually liked your plan of sending Tracy to an all-girls school in the middle of nowhere. But I doubt that would make us win any Parents of the Year Awards with her.”
Blaine makes a little unhappy sound. “Being a parent sucks.”
“You love it.”
He sighs. “Yeah. Yeah, most of the time, I really sort of do.”
**
He tries. He tries so very hard to not hover, to just read his book, or at least pretend to be reading his book, while his daughter who is really still just a kid and according to his memory was still playing with dolls and wearing braids in her hair just a day ago is sitting on the other end of the dock next to several feet of thin lanky teenage boy, throwing her lovely brown hair back over her shoulder and laughing at something he said to her.
Blaine glowers at them over his book, hands gripping on so tight his knuckles are turning white and he clenches his teeth, hard.
“You're going to rip out the pages if you don't relax a little,” Kurt murmurs next to his ear under the pretense of resting his head on Blaine's shoulder.
“I'm fine.”
“I think that's my line.”
“You do seem incredibly relaxed about all of this!” It comes out almost accusing, and Kurt snorts in response, shows Blaine the magazine he'd been reading. The corners are frayed and bent and the edges ripped lightly.
“I'm just better at hiding it,” he says.
Blaine turns his head, kisses Kurt's hair. “I'm sorry, darling. This can't be good for your back, you get so tense when you're stressed -”
“I'm fine.”
Blaine dips his head to catch his eyes, smiling affectionately. “You really have to stop saying that, you know? We both know it's not true.”
Kurt sighs. “Will you give me a backrub later? I'll pay you back with a -” his eyes dart around the little group currently assembled all around them before he leans in closer, voice sinking to a whisper, close to Blaine's ear. “Blow job.”
Blaine captures his lips in a quick kiss, beaming. “Deal. I'm looking forward to it!”
**
Blaine pushes the door open with his elbow, trying not to drop either of the two heavy shopping bags in his arms, eyebrows drawn together in concentration as he shifts his grip just a little to keep the whole thing from sliding -
“Here, let me help you with that,” Kurt speaks up right next to him, and then there's another pair of hands carefully lifting one of the bags from his arms before it has a chance to fall and spill its contents all over the cabin floor.
“Thanks!”
“Did you get everything?” Kurt asks, peering into the bag as he carries it through into the tiny kitchen corner, Blaine following close behind.
“Yup. Even found those chips that you love so much, that alone took me, like, ten minutes, I don't understand how that store is arranged -”
“Thank you,” Kurt says, setting his bag down on the counter and waiting for Blaine to do the same before pressing a quick kiss to his lips. “Why don't you pour us a glass of wine while I start dinner?”
Blaine frowns. “Where's Tracy?”
Kurt bites his lip, looking mildly worried, hesitates before he answers. “...She's over at the Hammond's for dinner.”
Blaine feels his jaw drop, eyes widening. “Josh's parents? You just let her - She's over there all alone? What did you - Why didn't you -”
“Blaine,” Kurt says in his calmest voice that usually means he's not calm at all, placing both hands on Blaine's shoulders. “What was I supposed to do?”
“What do you mean?” Blaine almost shouts. “You could have said no!”
Kurt sighs. “Yeah, but. Why?”
“What do you mean?”
Kurt rolls his eyes. “For what reason, Blaine?”
Blaine shakes his head, pressing his lips together briefly. “Because - because -” He lets his shoulders slump forward, can already feel the headache coming on. “Oh. Right.”
“Look.” Kurt squeezes his shoulders, a little too tightly, and now that Blaine really looks he can see the set of his jaw, the controlled nervousness in his eyes. “She is having dinner with their family. That's all. It's actually kind of cute, don't you think? And she's going to be home by ten, which is an early curfew for summer vacation at a place where they can't even go anywhere that we can't see, wouldn't you agree?”
Blaine shrugs. “I guess. I … panicked. Sorry.”
“This is just -” Kurt drops his hands, and suddenly looks tired. “It's all happening so fast. That's our problem, I guess.”
“She really likes him, doesn't she?”
Kurt flickers a small, tired grin at him. “I think she does.”
Blaine shakes his head sadly. “What if he breaks her heart?”
“Then we are there for her if she needs us.”
“Yeah. Okay.” He takes a deep breath, laughs. “You know, I've been thinking a lot about - What do you think it was like for our parents? You know, back when we first started dating? I mean, we kind of broke curfew a lot of the time and oh my god that time before we were even together and I went to your dad to convince him to give you the sex talk?”
Kurt groans, hiding his face behind his hands. “I don't even want to think about it. Or that time you got drunk at Rachel's party and I took you home with me? And my dad found you in my bed the next morning?”
Blaine grins, takes a step closer to Kurt to pry his hands off his face, lacing their fingers together instead and swinging their hands between them. “You know, back then, I always considered us - both of us - completely low-maintenance and very well-behaved compared to our peers.”
“I guess we were,” Kurt says, seeming to think about it. “Compared to most of our friends.”
“Still must have been an interesting time for our parents. I thought they were being completely unreasonable when they wouldn't let you stay over or kept checking in on us when we were just cuddling in front of the TV.”
“Ugh, yes.” Kurt rolls his eyes. “I mean, I knew my dad liked you, but he still wouldn't stop with all those rules and I used to think it was so unfair because it wasn't like I was bringing home random guys, it was you. I wondered how he couldn't see the difference.”
Blaine has to kiss him before he can speak again, because Kurt can't talk about his sixteen-year-old self being so sure of their love for each other and expect to not be kissed. “I guess it's difficult, being a teenager,” he admits. “I remember how much I hated those rules, I only wanted to be with you.”
“Well.” Kurt kisses him again, hugs him around the shoulders and rests their foreheads together gently. “We did find enough ways around the rules, didn't we? Empty house make-out sessions. Midnight phone calls under the covers. That night at your house after the opening of West Side Story -” He falls silent very quickly, body stiffening a little in Blaine's arms.
Blaine feels his face go cold for a moment, breath catching as he remembers that particular night, Kurt in his arms, so pale and beautiful and warm, the look on his face and the way the sweat glistened on his skin as they -
“We're never leaving our house empty ever again,” he decides, voice firm. “We'll have to make sure to never be at work at the same time and when we both really actually cannot be home we'll hire a house sitter, or we'll install cameras everywhere -”
“Artie has access to all kinds of cool camera equipment, do you think he can get us a discount?” Kurt asks, lifting his head to meet Blaine's eyes.
They look at each other. They breathe. For a moment, they don't move.
This time, Blaine is the first to blink and twitch his mouth up in a small, embarrassed grin. “We're doing it again, aren't we?”
Kurt answers his grin with a shy one of his own, blushes. “We are terrible parents. We really need to … relax. Don't we?”
“I bought wine,” Blaine reminds him. “We could … have a picnic, out on the dock?”
Kurt sighs. “If we bring the folding chairs. It's just, my back -”
Blaine nods, groans. “God, I know. My knees too.”
“When did we get so old?” Kurt asks, but he doesn't look unhappy about it. “Look at us standing in a holiday cabin worrying about our teenage daughter and complaining about aching joints...”
Blaine smiles, nudges his nose against Kurt's. “So, we're not sixteen anymore,” he says. “But … I wouldn't mind recreating some of those memories of all those nights in my empty house; do you remember that time we got snowed in and my parents couldn't come home and we … you remember, don't you? In front of the fireplace and with the hot chocolate -”
Kurt hums a little under his breath, places a long, lingering kiss to Blaine's mouth. “I remember. Vividly. And also, it's only after five and we have the cabin to ourselves until ten, so ...”
“Are you very hungry, because it's kind of early for dinner and I think it could wait another hour or so,” Blaine asks eagerly, pushing his hips forward against Kurt's because he may not be sixteen anymore, but he has an unfairly attractive and incredibly sexy husband and sometimes that leads to situations that need taking care of very, very immediately...
“Dinner can wait,” Kurt decides resolutely, places his hands on Blaine's hips and starts leading him backwards toward their bedroom. “There are more … urgent matters to attend to right now.”
“I love you so much,” Blaine breathes, and lets himself be led to wherever Kurt wants him. In almost three decades, he's always liked where they ended up.
**
“Can you see anything?” Kurt whispers, standing so close his breath is brushing the back of Blaine's neck as he speaks.
“They're just standing there,” Blaine whispers back. “God, who even built this window, this angle is really uncomfortable for seeing anything out on the porch -”
“I guess the architect didn't really consider the tenants' needs to spy on their teenage daughter,” Kurt comments, then drops his head to let his forehead rest against the back of Blaine's shoulder. “Blaine, what are we doing?”
Blaine takes Kurt's hand where Kurt's arm is wrapped around his stomach, gently strokes his knuckles with his thumb. “I know, this is - okay, oh my god, oh my -”
“What is happening,” Kurt hisses, arm tightening around Blaine's middle as he crowds in to press his own face against the window next to Blaine's, effectively pinning Blaine between his body and the wall.
“Ow, Kurt, stop it,” Blaine complains, wriggling a little to get some breathing room, slipping a leg between both of Kurt's who tries to twist around him at the very same moment, and together they lose their balance and go crashing to the floor, taking the coat rack with them, knocking the metal key bowl off the end table by the door as they go down.
Blaine just lies there shocked and breathing carefully for a moment half on top of Kurt before his brain registers what just happened.
“Oh,” Kurt says, sounding a little stunned.
“That was loud,” Blaine adds.
“Do you think they heard that?” Kurt asks sheepishly.
“Maybe they were … distracted?” Blaine suggests.
Kurt sighs, pushing at Blaine's shoulders to free himself and struggle into a sitting position. “God, I hope not! What were they even doing out there?”
Blaine pushes himself up onto his knees, bites his lip, blushing. “Nothing it - it just looked like they were going to kiss, but I think … I might have … overreacted? Just a bit?”
Kurt lets out a long breath, eyes closed, and when he looks back up at Blaine, he seems worried. “Are we going crazy, Blaine? Are we completely losing our minds? What are we even doing?”
Blaine shrugs, trying to sulk because that's easier than admitting Kurt is right. However … “Your dad always used to open the door and ask what we were doing when we kept saying goodnight out on the porch for too long. And we both know the curtains at my parents' house didn't just move on their own, my mom was always spying after us. This is not … We're not …”
Kurt lets out a long breath, lifts himself off the ground and stands up before offering Blaine a hand to pull him to his feet. “I know. But maybe we should actually take a step back here. Tracy is a good kid. And they're out on the front porch, what are they going to do out there? Realistically?”
Blaine hangs his head, and he feels so old sometimes. “No, you're right. I guess … we can give them a few more minutes before we go out there to scare the crap out of them.”
Kurt keeps hold of his hand, squeezing lightly in a gesture that could be nervous or reassuring, Blaine isn't quite sure right now how to read him. “Let's go make tea. If we're done with that and they're still out there, you can do the honors of taking a stroll outside to check on the weather. Deal?”
“Fine.” Blaine squeezes his hand back, and kind of misses the days when family vacations were actually relaxing. Or … at least he thinks they used to be? Whatever kept him up at night back then seems so much simper in retrospect.
They're leaning against the kitchen counter waiting for the water to boil when the front door slams and footsteps approach just a little too loudly to not seem angry, and then they're faced with a very stern looking Tracy, hands on her hips and eyebrows drawn together.
“Hey, sweetie, how was -” Kurt begins, but she holds up a hand, lips pressed together, effectively silencing the both of them. Blaine is amazed sometimes how many gestures she picked up from Kurt, wonders if Kurt finds as many things in her that remind him of Blaine.
“Don't even!” She glares at them. “I know what you were doing. Not that it wasn't completely obvious from the noise, are you actively trying to ruin my life?”
Blaine lowers his head, feeling guilty, but Kurt stares back at her, tight-lipped expression matching hers almost exactly. “We are your parents, we are allowed to worry about you and make sure you're okay.”
“By demolishing a lake cabin?” Tracy asks, staring incredulously, waving a hand at the mess by the front door that they haven't had the time to clean up yet.
“That was an accident,” Blaine tries.
“Yeah, well.” She huffs out a breath, crosses her arms in front of her chest. “Josh thinks you don't like him.”
“What? That's crazy, we -” Blaine starts, but Kurt interrupts.
“We don't really know Josh, do we? We neither like nor dislike him. But since he seems to be important to you, we should have him over for dinner, I guess. How does tomorrow sound?”
Tracy groans, rolling her eyes at them. “Dad, please, we only have like six more days here, it's not like I'm marrying him. You don't need to -”
“Tomorrow,” Kurt repeats. “I assume you're going to call him once you're in your room anyway, so you can invite him right away to make sure he can make it.”
“I hate you,” Tracy says, spinning around and walking away.
“We just want to get to know him,” Kurt calls after her. “It's just dinner, you were over at their house for dinner too! It's only polite that we return the favor.”
“Whatever,” Tracy calls back at them and slams her door so hard the windows rattle in their frames.
Kurt slumps sideways into Blaine, hiding his face against his shoulder. “Ugh.”
Blaine kisses his temple, rubs his back where he's sure Kurt is tensing up again. “Dinner is a great idea,” he assures him.
“I feel like an asshole for even suggesting it, the way she reacted.”
“You're not. This is a good idea.”
“Why are you so calm all of a sudden?” Kurt asks, turning a little so he can lean into the half-embrace better. “Not that I'm complaining, but -”
Blaine shrugs. “I don't know. We can't both freak out at the same time.”
“'m not freaking out.”
“I'm not either.”
Kurt presses his cold nose against Blaine's neck, hugs him around the waist. “I'll need a vacation after this vacation. To recover from all of this.”
“Yeah.” Blaine laughs. “God, yeah. Me too.”
**
Balance is restored in Blaine's mind over dinner the next night when he can go back to being the nervous, fluttery wreck and Kurt goes back to making polite conversation with Josh and squeezing Blaine's thigh under the table to calm him down.
Blaine tries too hard being polite which, in his case, always sort of comes out as almost creepily nice, so during most of the dinner, he busies himself refilling everyone's drinks, going back and forth between the table and the kitchen to pick up things nobody needs, and letting Kurt and Tracy carry the main part of the conversation.
At least Josh is quiet too, which leaves Blaine feeling strangely relieved - the boy is obviously nervous and obviously trying to impress them, which is no less than his daughter deserves out of a boyfriend.
And yet Josh obviously isn't too nervous to, almost absentmindedly, take Tracy's hand once they're done with dessert, just holding it in his own between them on the table top.
Blaine reaches for Kurt under the table, curling his fingers into his leg in a tight grip that makes Kurt jump a little in his chair mid-sentence.
He shoots Blaine a worried look and Blaine looks back apologetically, trying to relax his grip a little until Kurt slides his own hand under the table to pry Blaine's fingers off his thigh and lace them with his own instead.
“So, you play the guitar?” he asks Josh, seeming so focused and interested and nice Blaine thinks that at least Tracy will have no reason to be mad at them after this dinner.
“And the piano too,” Josh confirms. “And I sing. Not very well, but it's fun. I mean, I haven't decided yet, but I think I'd like to be a music teacher eventually.”
“Well, you're young, you have time to decide,” Kurt says. “But if you like music that much, I'd always say stick with it. Worked out well for the both of us,” he adds, throwing Blaine a look that's so calm and normal Blaine has really no idea how he does it.
“Not so much for me,” Tracy says, laughing, her hand still in Josh's. “I've been trying to get out of piano lessons for years now.”
“You've only been trying to get out of them for a few weeks now, actually,” Kurt corrects her, “And I still think you should stick it out a little longer.”
“Well, we don't have to talk about that tonight,” Tracy decides, pushing her chair back. “Actually, Josh and I were thinking about going for a walk, is that okay?”
Kurt tilts his head at them and Blaine just watches, he knows that way Kurt's eyes just sort of flash amusement for a fraction of a second, Kurt is having fun. “You know, that sounds lovely, we might just accompany you, it looks like it's such a beautiful night -”
Tracy looks horrified. “Daddy, come on, seriously -”
Kurt laughs, his knee nudging Blaine's under the table in barely held-back glee. “Oh my god, don't look at me like that, I was joking. Go. Go! Before I change my mind and insist you two play Monopoly with the two of us until your curfew.”
Tracy seems in more of a hurry to get out of the cabin than Josh does, who actually hangs back even as she's tugging at his hand. Josh stops for a moment, bites his lip as he glances shyly up at Kurt and Blaine who are trailing behind them toward the front door to see them out.
“Thanks for having me over,” he says politely, and okay, Blaine thinks, maybe he's not a bad guy after all. “It was nice. And I promise we'll be back by ten at the latest.”
Blaine looks at Kurt who looks back at him and Blaine knows what Kurt is about to suggest and, oh, whatever, Josh is a nice kid and the farthest those two can go is the dock. The cabin has a perfect view of the dock from pretty much every front-facing window.
“Eleven,” Kurt says. “Eleven is early enough.”
The smile Tracy gives them before tugging her date out the door is totally worth it, Blaine thinks.
**
They're lying side by side on the dock in the afternoon sun, Tracy and Josh off to see a movie in the little town nearby and the rest of the Hammond family out shopping while the teenagers are on their date. Which leaves only Kurt and Blaine by the lake for an entire afternoon and Blaine feels sleepy, content, not as worried as he still was a few days ago, which is progress, he's getting used to this.
“So, three more days before going home,” Kurt says, rolling onto his side and sliding a hand into Blaine's hair to play with his curls.
“Tracy is taking it really well,” Blaine comments. “You know. Leaving her boyfriend behind and all that.”
“The Hammonds only live two hours away,” Kurt reminds him. “Why do you think she's so excited about getting her driver's license soon?”
“She's not driving two hours to be with a boy,” Blaine says resolutely. Seriously. He may be a cool, easy-going dad now who is totally fine with his daughter having a boyfriend, but he has to draw a line somewhere.
“Josh talked to me earlier,” Kurt says, mouth twitching like he's trying not to smile. “Apparently they are planning to write to each other. That's sweet, right?”
“What did he talk to you for, then?” Blaine asks, feeling suspicious.
“He just wanted to know if we'd be willing to … you know. Let them meet up sometimes. Meet in the middle. Or have him stay over. On the couch.” Kurt adds. “With me camping out on the stairs all night; just mentioning that before you start worrying too much again.”
“...That is actually really sweet,” Blaine says, draping an arm over Kurt's waist and closing his eyes, it's all he can do not to purr when Kurt plays with his hair like that...
“I guess they really do like each other.”
“Driving two hours just for a date?” Blaine sighs. “I guess they do.”
Kurt is quiet for a moment. “Remember when you were at Dalton and I was at McKinley?”
Blaine blinks his eyes open, a slow, warm smile spreading across his face. “Or you in New York and me in Lima.”
“We made it work. We screwed up too, but in the end, we always made it work.”
“We did. But then, we are perfect for each other.”
Kurt hums, leans in to kiss him. “We are.”
“It was hard, though. Sometimes. It wasn't always easy.”
“No, it wasn't.”
“But yeah. We never let a few hours of distance keep us from trying either.” He pauses, just taking a moment to look at his husband, his Kurt, the man he has loved since he was a teenager. “I can't imagine any kid of distance ever keeping me from trying, when it comes to you,” he says. “Even when we were just kids. I would have walked from Westerville to Lima on foot just to see you.”
Kurt touches his fingertips to the side of Blaine's face, his eyes so gentle and loving and warm as he looks at Blaine. “If you had lived on the moon I would have found a way to get there,” he says. “I started planning our wedding the day we met on those stairs.”
“And I needed months to even figure out my feelings for you,” Blaine says, still sad about that even decades later. “I don't know how I couldn't have seen -”
“But even then,” Kurt says, nuzzling their faces together. “Even when we were just friends, I knew you would have always been there for me if I needed you. In fact, you were. More than once.”
“But that wasn't -”
“It doesn't matter, Blaine,” Kurt interrupts, looking so sure, so blissfully happy, Blaine can't argue with him. “I know you love me. You make me happy. And even back then I knew I could always count on you.” He closes his eyes, cuddling in closer, bare, sun-warm skin brushing and pressing against Blaine's everywhere. “You've always made me feel safe. You always made me so sure I didn't have to go through anything alone ever again.”
“You won't ever have to,” Blaine promises. “Whatever it is, we're in it together.” He sighs. “Like raising a teenager. Which is … a challenge, a lot of the time.”
“And also very rewarding and you love it.”
“That's true,” Blaine says, holding him closer. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For always being there for me too.” He laughs softly. “I mean, shit. We've been through so much together. We can do this too, can't we?”
Kurt rubs his nose against Blaine's, laughs with him. “Of course we can. We can do anything. But right now, we should probably get in the water before we get overheated.”
“Mmm, always the voice of reason,” Blaine answers, curling up so he can hide his face against Kurt's lovely chest. “I'm comfortable, I don't wanna move!”
“Don't make me throw you in the lake!”
“You're sexy when you get all bossy!”
“You're not as sexy as you think you are when you pretend to be sleepy.”
“I am sleepy.”
“Because you've been lying in the sun for too long.”
Blaine lifts his head, scrunches his nose up at Kurt. “Almost thirty years and you still won't let me get sunstroke in peace.”
“Because I want you around for many, many more years,” Kurt says, and kisses him before rolling them over the edge of the dock and into the cool water with a splash.
Blaine shrieks, and retaliates by wrapping his arms and legs around him like a four-armed octopus and making Kurt drag him through the water on his back.
“Sometimes I can't even remember why I married you,” Kurt says gravely while he tries to stay above water with the extra weight on his back.
“Onwards, my noble steed,” Blaine cries, patting his husband's wet hair. “Carry me safely to shore and you shall be richly rewarded -”
“Seriously, can't remember what the hell it was that made me say yes,” Kurt grumbles, and turns in the water to dip Blaine under the surface.
**
Blaine comes back out of the bathroom, folding up his robe. It's their last night here and he's packed up almost everything they won't be needing the next morning. That way they'll have more time for one last swim, one leisurely walk around the lake … He hates leaving but on the other hand, he's also looking forward to sleeping in his own bed again, to being back in familiar surroundings, he loves their house. He loves the home they have all made together and whether it's here or at the lake, he's always happy as long as he has the people he loves with him. It's just that at home he has the good mattress, he knows Kurt misses it too, his back must be killing him by now.
“As much as I'll miss this place, I am looking forward to our own bed,” Blaine says, stepping into the living room where Kurt is supposed to be cleaning, only the room is empty. Blaine looks around, lowering the robe, confused. “Kurt?”
“In here,” comes Kurt's voice, small and undeniably sad from the direction of the second bedroom. Tracy's room.
Brow furrowed, Blaine puts down the robe and walks over, steps through the door to find Kurt sitting on the edge of the bed holding a little stuffed animal in his hands. It's shaped like a duck and he recognizes it easily as one of Tracy's first toys, one they bought for her shortly after they got her and apparently she still takes it to bed with her even now, even when she's old enough to currently be out for a walk with her boyfriend.
“What's going on?” Blaine asks, making his way over to the bed and carefully sitting down next to Kurt.
Kurt stares down at the little yellow duck in his hands and shakes his head, eyes glistening. “I just - I was putting her sweater in her room so she could pack it later and I saw this thing sitting on her pillow and I just -”
“That's Puppy,” Blaine says, smiling at the name their baby daughter had picked for the little duck despite many assurances that it was, in fact, not a little dog. She had insisted. And the name had stuck.
“Yeah. Silly name for a duck.” Kurt sniffles a little and Blaine wraps an arm around his shoulders shuffling closer. He doesn't like seeing his husband upset.
“Hey, what's … are you okay? What's wrong, sweetheart?”
Kurt wipes his eyes with one hand, letting out a sound that's half between an embarrassed little laugh and a sob. “I'm just being silly, I -” he takes a deep breath. “Remember when we got this for her?”
Blaine nods. “Car ride, back in Ohio, from some dinner at my parents' back to your family for a visit, I don't remember the occasion -”
“It was Thanksgiving, wasn't it?” Kurt says, sniffling again and rolling his eyes. “God, I don't even remember it was so long ago -”
“She wouldn't stop crying and nothing would work and then we stopped for gas and you went inside to pay and when you came back out you had that little duck with you and you gave it to her.” Blaine smiles. “She stopped crying immediately and was calm for the entire rest of the drive.”
Kurt laughs again, even though he still sounds sad. “It was a total impulse decision, we were both exhausted and still had a long way to go and she was really upset and I didn't know how to help her, we were both still so new at this back then, we didn't know what to do half of the time.”
“I still kind of feel like that, a lot of the time,” Blaine admits.
“Me too,” Kurt says, leaning into him, letting Blaine hug him sideways, resting the side of his head against his cheek. “I just wanted her to feel better. I didn't know what to do, and then I saw that stupid stuffed toy sitting on that shelf and I just … bought it, I don't even know why.”
“And it became her favorite,” Blaine finishes the story for him. “She could never go to sleep without Puppy on the pillow next to her. She carried him everywhere. And even when she started preschool he would be sitting in her little backpack all day long, it was the only way she'd let us go home if she knew Puppy was there taking care of her -”
“I paid, like, a dollar fifty for him,” Kurt says, staring down at the duck and running a thumb over one of the many spots he had to patch him up over the years. “All those things we bought for her, while we were waiting for her, all that money we spent on toys. But she chose this ugly little thing we plucked off a shelf at a gas station because we had no idea what to do with her. That's the one she always loved most of all.”
Blaine kisses him through his hair, rubs his back comfortingly. “I feel like you're going for some kind of analogy here?”
Kurt sighs. “I don't know, Blaine. I just - she's growing up, you know? And she's going to make her own choices. And they are her choices, and they have always been her choices, and that's the way it should be, but … I'm just … I have no idea what I'm even saying,” he admits, sagging against Blaine's side.
“I think I get it anyway,” Blaine assures him. “I know what you mean. And you know I'm feeling it too.”
“I know.” Kurt pats his leg, then sits up straight, breathes in deeply, dries his eyes with the back of his hand. “I'm being stupid. I just saw Puppy on her pillow and I got all emotional, I guess we are getting old after all -”
“Hey,” Blaine says, taking the stuffed animal from Kurt's hands and placing it back on the pillow. “She may not need us to tuck her in and read her a bedtime story anymore. But we're still her dads. We're still a family. And you know that that will never change.”
“She didn't even want to come to the lake this year.”
“And yet here we are.”
“One day she won't come home for Christmas.”
“We still see your dad for Christmas every year. And my stupid-ass brother and his family too.”
“Well, yeah. But my dad is my dad. You know?”
“Kurt,” Blaine says, smiling because he loves him and because if he's sure of one thing, it's that this family will stick together as long as Kurt has anything to say about it. “I get it. Believe me, I do. But we've given her what she needs to make her own choices. At some point, we're going to have to trust in that.”
“I know.”
“And for now, she's still fifteen and we can ground her into the next millennium the first time she breaks curfew so that she won't ever do it again.”
Kurt laughs, then gives Blaine a quick hug before kissing his cheek. “You always know just how to cheer me up. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Blaine says, getting up when Kurt does to follow him back out into the living room to resume packing.
**
It's a sunny day when they leave the lake to go home again, Blaine taking the first turn driving and Kurt taking over after a late lunch at a diner along the way.
The windows are rolled down as Kurt pulls out of the parking lot and Blaine makes himself comfortable in the passenger seat, hands Kurt his sunglasses almost on autopilot when he reaches for the glove compartment.
“Thanks, honey,” Kurt says, slipping them onto his nose.
“You're welcome,” Blaine answers, watching his lovely profile as Kurt threads their way back into traffic, every minute bringing them back closer to their home and their everyday life and their responsibilities and their routines. He can't wait.
He glances into the backseat where Tracy is sitting bent over her phone, smiling dreamily as she reads something and then starts typing away a response. She already has plans to meet up with Josh two weekends from now and Blaine's stomach still starts tying itself up in knots when he thinks about it, but at the same time, he gets it. He so gets it.
He shifts his gaze back to Kurt, and it's been almost thirty years of looking at him, from every angle, in every light, at all times of day and night. He knows his face better than he knows his own, he has loved this man through everything, they have raised a wonderful kid together. The best kid, he thinks, glancing back at Tracy, because clearly there has never been a better, smarter, stronger and more perfect kid anywhere in the world.
This is his family. These are the people he loves more than anything. They're not perfect, but they're the best imperfect he has ever met in his life. And things change and it's not always easy and sometimes, they'll screw up. But at the end of the day, Blaine knows, they'll always be a part of each other.
“You know,” he says, letting his head fall back against the backrest, looking at his beautiful husband who made this all possible for him. “I'd still walk from Westerville to Lima for you. Even with my knee acting up. I hope you never doubt that.”
Kurt smiles, reaches over briefly to squeeze Blaine's hand. “I know, darling. I always know. I love you.”
“Oh my god, seriously, you two are nauseating -” Tracy speaks up from the backseat, and Kurt smirks.
“Care to read some of those texts out loud you're sharing back and forth with young Mr Hammond there?”
“They're none of your business,” Tracy shoots back, but in the rear-view mirror Blaine can see her eyes widening as she clutches her phone more tightly in her hands.
“We're paying the bills for that phone, though, so maybe we should just stop doing that,” Kurt suggests calmly, and Blaine can see how much fun he's having with this as Tracy glares at the both of them, only the little twitch at the corners of her mouth betraying her amusement and the fact that she knows exactly how very not serious Kurt is about his threats.
“You know, there's a certain DVD with a certain sickeningly sweet wedding on it, I bet the vows alone would get millions of hits on YouTube -”
“I suggest you take a minute to remember who pays your allowance and sets your curfew, young lady,” Kurt responds, and both of them are grinning now even though they still try sounding serious as they come up with new ideas for fake threats.
Blaine leans back in his seat and listens to them and doesn't even try to hide his grin, he's so happy.
And they're happy too, these people that he loves. And if Tracy does get sad because she misses her boyfriend or because they break up or because they have a fight, he knows Kurt will drop the sarcasm and the jokes in a fraction of a second and be there for her for as long as she needs him, as will Blaine. They're a family. They have each other's backs. Always.
These are the people he loves more than anything. His family. To the soothing sound of their bickering, he closes his eyes and pretends to be taking a nap while both of them try making him take their side.