FIC: Forever Home - Chapter 7 of 100
Title: Forever Home - Chapter 7
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Kadam (Kurt Hummel/Adam Crawford)
Rating: R (PG-13 for now)
Spoilers: AU. If you’ve seen Kurt and Adam interact, you’re good.
Summary: Adam is bored, and realizes he needs a companion. He decides to adopt a hybrid human/cat.
Warning: Mentions of past abuse (non-sexual) from other canon Glee characters. This fic is not particularly kind to most canon Glee characters.
Length: About 2,700 words this chapter. About 20,000 words so far. 461,000 words total.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story; they're owned by Fox. Any non-Glee characters are my own invention.
A/N: This part is still PG-13, but getting closer to R. The first part is here: Chapter 1
Chapter 6
CHAPTER 7
Kurt was quiet on the way home. He seemed to appreciate the sunglasses Adam insisted he wear, though he mostly kept his eyes closed for the rest of the ride. Maybe there was too much to look at, and it was certainly going by too fast.
Adam pulled into his parking spot in the garage, and let Kurt know they were home.
Kurt kept the sunglasses on, even in the garage, but Adam didn’t say anything. If Kurt wanted to hide behind the glasses a little while longer, that was perfectly understandable. He found the bag from the store, and Kurt’s duffle, printed with the New Directions name, and held those while he let Kurt out of the car. Kurt was still wearing the leash, so Adam slid his hand through the loop, so he could still open the door.
Adam hoped the elevator would be empty all the way to the Penthouse floor, but knew it was unlikely. As luck would have it, his next-door neighbor was getting out of her car, so he held the door for her. She was an elderly lady with white hair worn in a flattering style, and she smiled at Adam and Kurt.
“Good morning, Mrs. Avery,” Adam greeted her warmly.
“Good morning, Mr. Crawford. I keep telling you, if you want me to call you Adam, you’d better learn to call me Lily.”
Kurt was keeping very still and quiet, perhaps hoping she wouldn’t notice him.
“All right, Lily,” Adam conceded with a grin.
“And who is this adorable young man?”
Kurt’s eyes widened behind the sunglasses.
“Lily, I’d like you to meet Kurt. He’s my...pet, my companion. I’m just bringing him home now for the first time.”
“That’s good, I’m glad you’re going to have some company. Kurt, I’d like to get to know you better. Perhaps you can both come over for some homemade cookies and lemonade later this week?”
Adam glanced down at Kurt. He seemed nervous, but not fearful, and he’d seen how Kurt’s nose had twitched at the word “cookies”.
“We’d be delighted, Lily. Let me know a good day and time.”
“I’ll be in touch. Goodbye, boys.” They had reached the top floor. She stepped out of the elevator, and turned to the right, and started walking down the hall.
“Goodbye, Lily,” Adam called.
“Goodbye, ma’am,” Kurt added quietly.
It wasn’t so quiet Adam thought she couldn't hear it, but she turned back and grinned in delight.
“See you both later.”
Adam exited the elevator, and walked down the left side of the hall.
“She was nice,” Kurt commented, voice tinged with wonder.
“A lot of people are, Kurt. You’ll be seeing more of Mrs. - of Lily. She’s not only my nearest neighbor, but she owns this floor.”
Kurt halted, staring up at Adam. “Owns…the…floor? She owns all the apartments on this floor?”
“Well, all two of them, yes. She and her late husband owned them both, but she inherited them both when he passed away. This used to be his apartment, in fact. She said the reason they had such a long and happy marriage was because they each had their own separate space. I saw the ad, and had no idea how huge the place was, because the price was ridiculously low. She said later she was looking for just the right tenant. She didn’t want to live next door to just anybody.”
Kurt took a deep breath. “But maybe she won’t like living next door to a hybrid. I don’t want to get you in trouble.”
Adam put his hand on Kurt’s shoulder, steering him in the direction of the only other door nearby, on the opposite side of the hallway. At the very far end of the hall was the stairway. Adam hoped the elevator would never break down, because he wasn’t looking forward to walking up and down 23 flights of stairs.
“I wouldn’t worry about that, Kurt. She saw you were a hybrid right away, because of the collar. Did she seem upset at the thought of you living here?”
“No, I guess not.”
Adam could see Kurt had a lot of different things to think about.
“It’s a rather large apartment,” Adam told him. “I needed room for my grand piano, and a few other things.”
“Grand piano…” Kurt repeated dreamily.
Adam unlocked the door, and ushered Kurt in, then flipped on the light. Kurt took a few steps, then came to a dead stop. Adam had to gently nudge his shoulder to get him to move so he could get into the room.
“Shall I take you on the grand tour now?”
Kurt took in the huge living room, which Adam now realized was bigger than the whole front of the store at New Directions. He could see a couple of doorways beyond.
“I’m - it’s so big! I don’t know -” He interrupted himself to yawn, then apologized. He took the sunglasses off, and Adam put them on a small table by the door.
“No, I’m sorry for keeping you up. I forgot you need some naps. Here, I’ll show you to your room, and you can put your things away later.”
Kurt nodded and followed him. He saw a huge kitchen off to the right, but he followed Adam to the left, down a hallway. “Here’s your room. We’ll figure out later if you need anything else. And here’s your bathroom, in here.”
“What?” Kurt seemed wide awake now. “I get my own bathroom? And it’s not even in the hall?”
“Right. You’ll have more privacy that way.” At the moment he wondered if privacy was a good thing, until Kurt got used to everything. “Hopefully anything you don’t have with you, you’ll find in the bathroom. If you need anything, come out and holler for me, and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you. I thought you said the room wasn’t very big?”
“Erm...compared to my room, it’s not.” True, it was technically the smallest of the apartment’s three bedrooms, at only 11 x 11 feet. “Tell you what, I’ll set these things down here and you can take your nap. If you need me, I won’t be very far away.”
“You’re leaving me?”
Kurt’s voice sounded so shocked and disappointed, Adam paused. “I have some things I need to do on the computer. I was going to work in the living room. But if you want, you’re welcome to take a nap on the sofa in there. I’ll try to be quiet so I don’t disturb you.”
“Oh, please, don’t worry about that, I’ll be able to sleep,” Kurt insisted. “But is it really okay for me to sleep on the furniture in the living room?”
Adam hadn’t really given it that much thought. “Of course it’s alright. Just take your shoes off, first.” Then he thought of another possibility. “Are you going to nap as a human, or a cat? I don’t mind so much if you get hair on the furniture, but -“
“If I do, I’ll clean it off when I change back, I promise.” Kurt yawned again. “I’m sorry. I’ve been changing back and forth a lot lately, and it wears me out a bit. I think I’ll take a nap like this.”
Adam pointed out the largest of the sofas, which happened to be leather. It was unlikely any hair would stick to it anyway. “Just take your shoes off, and leave them there….that’s fine. If you get cold, there’s a blanket there on the back of the sofa. You can use that.”
“I can? Thanks!” Kurt covered himself up as best he could in the blanket. Adam picked up the shoes to move them a little further out of the way, and was amused to hear a quiet purring sound. He stopped to listen, and it soon changed to a light snore. Far from being annoying, he thought he could easily get used to that sound.
Adam decided he could wait for lunch until Kurt woke up, assuming he didn’t sleep more than a couple of hours. He realized he had a lot of e-mail to catch up on. He debated what to tell his friends, though he certainly wasn’t ready to post anything on Facebook, or change his status or anything. Besides, what would he change it to? There was no such thing as: Proud owner of a hybrid. Or perhaps in this case, Proudly owned by a hybrid. He shook his head. No, that wouldn’t do. He’d need to make sure, and soon, that Kurt realized who was the owner and who was the pet.
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About an hour later, Kurt woke up. He sat up, looking around the room in alarm. Where was he? Then he saw his new owner - Mr. Adam, -- or just Adam -- sitting at the dining room table, working on a laptop.
Adam looked up, as Kurt untangled himself from the warm blanket. He carefully folded it again and put it back where it belonged, on the back of the sofa.
“Good afternoon. Did you have a good nap?” Adam asked.
Kurt nodded. But there was a specific reason he’d woken up. “I um, I need to um, use the -“
Adam blinked, then smiled. “Go ahead. There should be everything you need in the bathroom in your room. Can you find your way?”
“I think so, yes, thank you.” Kurt followed the hallway back to the room - his room! - and opened the door to his bathroom. He gasped. There was a combination bathtub and shower that was bigger than his entire cage at the pet store. It was in a separate room, along with a toilet, with the sink outside in an even larger part of the bathroom. Kurt was beginning to think he was in heaven.
He used the toilet and washed his hands - Miss Emma had been very strict about always, always, always washing one’s hands after using the toilet, even if you didn’t think you needed to. He explored the room a little, opening drawers and cupboards, then looked in the shower. He found several types of soap, and two types of shampoo. It was amazing, but a lot to take in at once. He found a brand new toothbrush, still in it’s plastic wrap. He thought about using it, but decided he could wait until after they ate. He hoped it was time to eat soon, because he was very hungry. He’d barely been able to eat any breakfast, because the others were upsetting him, and he didn’t want what he did manage to eat to come back up again.
But he remembered, he had a new home now…what Miss Emma called a Forever Home. The others were back at the store, and would maybe someday find their own new home, but he would probably never have to see them again. This was his place, and Adam was his owner, and he would never have to go back to the store. Unless he really displeased Adam, but he wasn’t about to do that if he could help it. No matter what Adam wanted from him, he’d do it. Anything would be better than going back there.
He had to walk through the bedroom - his bedroom! - again to get out to the living room. He looked around quickly, but realized he would need to take a lot more time to thoroughly explore. He could find out a lot more about the place as a cat than a human, but for now, he thought he’d better stay human. He wasn’t sure yet, but he thought possibly Mr. Adam liked him better in his human form? Nobody else ever had, except for his parents. They’d loved him in both his forms, they told him that often enough, and they never made fun of him. He’d been missing his mother for most of his life, and missing his dad for the last five years. He really hoped he was alright on his own. He wondered if there was a way to find out what happened to his dad, if he was okay.
He found the living room again, and Adam was shutting down the laptop.
“I don’t know about you, Kurt, but I’m starving. What do you say, shall we have lunch?”
Kurt gasped, realizing he hadn’t thought about how much time he’d slept. Had Mr. Adam been waiting all this time to eat, because of him? He was bad, already, without even trying to be.
“I’m sorry, I forgot - I didn’t think about you being hungry. I could have waited to sleep, or you could have eaten without me, please don’t wait for me, it’s not worth your time -“
“Shhh, it’s alright, Kurt.” Adam walked over and slowly held out his hand.
It wasn’t in a fist, so maybe he wasn’t too angry.
“It’s fine, Kurt, I wanted to wait for you. Now come on and talk to me while I fix us something to eat. How hungry are you?”
Kurt didn’t know how to answer that. Nobody had asked him that in years, they just gave him however much they wanted to, and he ate it, and that was that.
“I’m not sure?” he answered hesitantly.
Adam frowned, then his face smoothed out. “Alright, let’s start with something light. I’m going to make soup now. You can start out with a bowl of soup and a sandwich after, and if you’re still hungry, you can have more of either. Or both. There’s plenty of food here.”
Plenty of food? He wondered what that meant. He knew food was expensive, and it mustn’t be wasted.
“Do you like tomato soup? And peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?”
They were both easy questions. Kurt liked that kind, rather than the hard ones. He nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Try again.”
Adam didn’t look angry, or even annoyed, really, just…very patient. He wished he knew what he’d said or done wrong, so he could fix it.
“I’m sorry?” That was usually a good start.
“You called me sir. I’d rather you call me Adam, or Mr. Adam if you insist, but we really don’t need that formality here. Maybe out in public…oh dear, I’m going to have to read up more on that, I’ve already forgotten.”
Kurt blinked, trying to follow it all. His owner - Adam, Adam, Adam - sure talked a lot.
“Yes, Adam. I’ll try to remember better.”
“It’s fine. Just have a seat here at the table, and I’ll have the soup ready soon. It’s just from a can, I’m afraid. Sometimes I cook, but with things like soup, I’m more used to just warming up what’s in a can.”
“My mom taught me how to make soup, before she died. I used to make it for me and my dad,” Kurt remembered.
Adam paused at the stove, then continued stirring. “When did your mother die?”
Kurt knew he shouldn’t cry, not at his age. But he still wanted to. “My mama died when I was eight.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Kurt. That was awfully young for you. What happened?”
“She was hit by a car. Daddy and I were waiting at home. She was just going to walk to the grocery store, and then come right back. But she didn’t come back.”
“Kurt, I’m so sorry. I’m sure she wanted to come back to you, Kurt, but sometimes those things happen.”
He watched Adam carefully. He took the soup off the stove and poured it into two bowls. He set one down in front of Kurt, along with a spoon and napkin.
Kurt knew he should eat, but his stomach was getting tied up in knots again. “But what if - you might - promise me you won’t let anything like that happen to you?”
Adam winced. “I can’t make that kind of promise, Kurt. Accidents are things we can’t predict. But I’ll do my best to figure out what to do in that case. In the meantime, let’s not worry about that. We’ve got plenty of other things to think about. Now eat your soup before it gets cold.”
“I’m not sure I can. I’ll try.”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you about that right now, it was my fault. Tell you what, would you like to listen to some music while we eat?”
Kurt nodded enthusiastically, and Adam turned on the radio. It was playing an old song, one his dad used to listen to, by one of those old guys with the guitar… Bruce Springsteen, he thought. Maybe this was the same oldies station Mr Will sometimes listened to. He found his appetite coming back as he tried to concentrate on the words in the song, rather than all the confusing thoughts in his head.
Next - Chapter 8