GLEE FIC: Identity (2/8)
Title: Identity, part 2
Fandom: Glee
Summary: In the small sexist village, Kurt Hummel finds life difficult. He’s a man but constantly treated as a woman because of his not-straightforward gender. He wants to leave the village but Blaine Anderson wants him as a wife. Can they compromise their dreams without a lot of heartbreak?
Pairings/Characters: Kurt/Blaine, Burt/Elizabeth, Matthew/Mary Anderson, Puck/Quinn, Finn/Rachel, Brittany, Sam, OCs.
Categories: AU, drama, angst, H/C
Rating: R (for adult themes)
Warnings: Non-con (sort of explicit), mpreg, intersex gender
Word count: 3,528 words this part (15,000+ total so far)
Prompt: this prompt here on the glee_kink_meme, and 'Early 20th century for au-bingo.
A/N: Please, if you like this story, leave some encouraging feedback! It's very discouraging to a writer to think that no-one reads or likes their stories!!
Part 1
------------------
PART 2:
The next morning, Kurt stayed home. When his friends came to see where he was, Elizabeth told them that Kurt wasn’t feeling well and needed the rest. The girls accepted that and so Kurt didn’t have to endure their questions.
Just after lunch, however, Blaine arrived. Elizabeth answered the door and was surprised to see him. “Blaine.”
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Hummel. Is Kurt in?” Blaine hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the other boy all night.
“He’s not feeling well today,” Elizabeth replied. Part of her wanted to keep Blaine away because of what he had done but the rest of her knew that the boy had only done what he had been instructed to do.
“I know, and that’s my fault,” Blaine replied, feeling guilty. “I just wanted to talk to him for a while and to return this.” He held up the bag containing the crocheted baby blanket. “Kurt left it at my house yesterday.”
“That’s very kind of you. Come in for a minute and I’ll see if Kurt wishes to see you.”
“Thank you.” Blaine stepped inside and closed the door behind him as Elizabeth went off to find Kurt. The room he was in seemed cluttered but felt cozy, and Blaine resolved to try something similar for his own place. Maybe if Kurt was surrounded by a similar feeling, he would be more friendly.
Elizabeth returned, Kurt trailing behind. Blaine looked at Kurt and saw the shadows under his red-rimmed eyes. “Good afternoon,” he said politely.
“What do you want?” Kurt asked harshly. He hadn’t wanted to see Blaine but his mother had told him he should.
“I want to get to know you better,” Blaine replied. “I want to talk.”
“About…?”
“Everything. Anything.” Blaine wasn’t fussy. He decided that he liked the sound of Kurt’s voice. It was higher-pitched than any other man’s but not unpleasantly so, therefore he just wanted the pleasure of hearing Kurt talk. Blaine sat down at the table. “Please.”
“I’ll be out the back in the garden,” Elizabeth interrupted. “Kurt, can you keep an eye on Lucy and bring her out when she wakens?”
Kurt glanced over at his little sister, who was eighteen months old, sleeping in the small cot in the corner of the room.
“Yes, Mother.” It would give him a good excuse to leave if he needed to.
Elizabeth kissed Kurt’s cheek - she was tall for a woman, just slightly shorter than her eldest son - and left the room. Kurt took a seat at the far end of the table and crossed his arms over his chest.
Blaine cleared his throat and then nodded towards the bag with the blanket in it. “You do wonderful work.”
“Thank you,” Kurt accepted the compliment grudgingly. His next words were no less gruff. “I appreciate you returning it. I hadn’t wanted to start all over again.” And he hadn’t wanted to return to Blaine’s house to fetch it.
“It would be a shame to let your hard work go to waste,” Blaine agreed with a small smile. “I think you’re very talented. Indeed, your clothes are the finest in town.”
There was a limit to what he could do with the materials he had but Kurt always tried to look presentable. Today was no exception; even though he wasn’t happy, he was still wearing his favourite fitted jacket. “Really?”
“Yes,” Blaine confirmed. “In fact, I think you should make clothing for men and women, and sell them.”
Kurt scoffed at the idea.
“Even if people were willing to pay me for their clothes, I could never get to keep the money. The council thinks I’m a woman, remember?” His tone was bitter.
“Then we’ll petition them to let you keep the money,” Blaine said, becoming enthused by the idea. “We wouldn’t need a shop - you could work from home.”
“So I make clothes in-between looking after you and the children, is that the idea?” Kurt shot back. “Forget it, Blaine. If I get pregnant, it will prove to the council that I’m a woman, not a man, and they’ll treat me accordingly. That’s why I want to leave. I want to be treated as a man.” He didn’t know why he was telling Blaine that; no-one else but his parents knew his feelings.
“I don’t see you as a woman,” Blaine half-lied. He did see Kurt as his wife, doing all the womanly chores, but when it came to appearance, he was attracted to Kurt because he was male. “If I did, I wouldn’t be wanting to marry you. I… I like men,” he confided in a low voice.
The statement stunned Kurt. He had never heard of such a thing before, although he had admitted to himself the possibility several months ago when he realised that he liked looking at men rather than women. But he had put that down to his being part female himself. “You do?”
“Yes. My friends think I’m mad for choosing you but the truth is, I find you way more attractive than any of the girls in the village,” Blaine confessed. He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. “I’ve never told anyone that before.”
“I won’t tell anyone else,” Kurt promised. Much as he wasn’t inclined to help Blaine after the previous day, he knew what such a secret meant.
Blaine half-smiled at him. “Thank you.” After his behaviour yesterday, Blaine wouldn’t have blamed Kurt for running to the council and dobbing him in. “So with that in mind, I would like to start again. Kurt Hummel, do you give me permission to court you properly?”
Kurt remained silent for a few moments, thinking it over. Blaine was attractive, and obviously willing to learn from his mistakes. Only time would tell whether that meant Kurt could love him.
“As long as you treat me as an equal,” he agreed.
This time Blaine’s smile lit up his face. “I’ll try,” he promised. He would do anything to keep Kurt.
They chatted for half an hour until Lucy woke. Kurt got her out of the cot and sat her on his hip, all the time chatting quietly to her. Blaine stared at Kurt, picturing how the other boy would look carrying their child around the house. It was a good picture.
“I have to take her outside,” Kurt stated, wondering what the expression on Blaine’s face meant.
“I should go anyway,” Blaine excused himself. “May I call again tomorrow?”
Kurt nodded. He had enjoyed talking to Blaine and in a way, didn’t want him to leave. It was so different talking to a boy than to girls, and an intelligent boy at that.
Blaine buried the impulse to go over and kiss Kurt. Instead, he said, “Tomorrow, then,” and left before he did something stupid.
For a few seconds, Kurt stared at the door. Then he gathered his thoughts and headed outside to his mother.
“How did it go?” Elizabeth asked when she saw her son.
“It went… fine,” Kurt replied, putting Lucy on the ground. “I think.”
Elizabeth smiled; that was good to hear.
**********
For the next couple of days, Blaine called around to visit Kurt in the early afternoon and usually stayed for an hour or so, and he always brought flowers with him. When Kurt started going back to work with his friends, Blaine started coming around in the evenings. He dined, at Burt’s invitation, with the Hummels and then stayed to share conversation with them.
Their first conversation was interesting though. Burt stopped Blaine before he could go inside the house. “I need to have a word with you.”
Blaine swallowed hard. Burt was not overly tall but being a stone mason, he was quite muscled. Blaine didn’t fancy his chances of winning any fight that Burt might pick. “Yes, sir?”
“I don’t like what you did to Kurt.” Burt never minced words; he believed honesty was very important. “The way you took his innocence wasn’t right.”
“It’s what everyone does,” Blaine defended himself, though he wished he could take the words back when he saw Burt’s eyes narrow.
“That’s not a good excuse. Just because every other man in this village thinks it’s his right to force women to lie with them, it doesn’t make it right.” Although he hadn’t realised that until Kurt had turned sixteen and could have been taken by any man.
“But you--”
“Did the same thing? Sure I did,” Burt admitted. “And it was wrong then. But Lizzie was a lot different to Kurt. She accepted the way things were and wanted to have a family of her own. Kurt… he’s not a woman. I’ve never heard him express a wish to get married or have children. And while he might hold his head high when the villagers call him a woman, it hurts that they can’t see that he’s not. He wanted to be able to choose someone to love, to give himself to, and you took away that choice.”
Blaine hung his head, unable to keep looking at the older man.
“I didn’t mean to.”
“I know.” Burt knew that Blaine had just been doing what he had been raised believing. “But now you need to make it up to him. You need to give him choices. The choice of whether to let you near him again. The choice of whether he wants to have your baby. The choice of whether to marry you. Do you get the picture?”
“Yes, sir.” Loud and clear. He wasn’t exactly happy with waiting but if it got him Kurt in the end, he would.
“Good. Now, you’d better go in. Kurt will be waiting,” Burt told him.
Blaine nodded and hastily entered the house.
Burt grinned to himself, happy with the way the talk had gone, and slowly followed Blaine. Scaring suitors was fun!
**********
Two weeks after the initial encounter, Blaine felt brave enough to ask Kurt - after everyone else had gone to bed - for permission to kiss him. He had missed the sweet taste of Kurt’s lips and didn’t want to wait any longer for more. Also, he saw the knitting needle near Kurt’s hand and didn’t want to be injured trying anything without permission.
Kurt hesitated only slightly before saying yes. He had grown to like Blaine and while he didn’t think it was love, Kurt was curious as to what a consensual kiss would be like.
When Blaine’s lips touched his, Kurt was surprised at the spark of pleasure that ran through him. He inhaled sharply and Kurt found himself responding to the kiss instead of just enduring it. When Blaine withdrew and smiled at him, Kurt smiled back. Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all.
Blaine was encouraged by Kurt’s reaction. He was pleased that Kurt had enjoyed the kiss and hoped it meant that the other boy would soon want to try making love again. It wasn’t easy, waiting, not when he knew what it was like. But wait he would.
**********
Another three weeks passed. The kisses were now a regular part of their courtship but Kurt wasn’t ready to go any further, especially since he wasn’t feeling well. The mornings were the worst but some days, the nausea just wouldn’t go away.
Elizabeth sat by Kurt’s bed after a particularly bad spell of vomiting and, as she stroked her son’s hair, asked quietly, “When was your last bleeding?”
Kurt thought back and with a start, realised that it had been too long.
“Seven weeks ago.” Two weeks before Blaine had lain with him. “I can’t be…”
“I think you might be,” Elizabeth stated calmly though her heart was racing. Her baby boy was pregnant!
“It was only once,” Kurt protested.
“Sometimes, that’s all it takes,” Elizabeth pointed out.
Tears sprang into Kurt’s eyes. No, this couldn’t be happening to him! “I can’t be pregnant!” He wasn’t ready for the responsibility or for the council to fully treat him as a woman.
“I don’t think you’ve got a choice, sweetheart,” Elizabeth said as she gathered Kurt into her arms. She wasn’t ready for him to leave her and start his own family. “Obviously you and Blaine were meant to be together.”
Kurt shook his head.
“I don’t want to have a baby,” he whispered. “I won’t be able to leave here.”
Elizabeth didn’t know how accepting the world outside their village would be of a man who could bear children but she didn’t mention that. “It won’t be so bad. And you and Blaine can work to get the rules of marriage changed.” Annie was next in line and Elizabeth was loathe to let her be treated the same way.
That brought Kurt to another point. “I don’t want to tell Blaine yet. I need more time to get to know him.” He really liked Blaine and the potential for love was there, he could feel it, but he wasn’t there yet. Nor was he ready for marriage.
“You’ll have to do it soon,” Elizabeth pointed out. “People are already talking about your courtship and if they find out about you feeling sick, they’ll figure it out.”
“I know.” That was what frightened him. The council would force him into a marriage he wasn’t ready for and he would be trapped.
A few minutes later, after Elizabeth left to get the children ready, Kurt examined his flat stomach. There was no physical evidence of the baby in there but he knew there would be soon. And as soon as there was, his life would be over. He would be a wife and mother, and he would be hounded by the council until he gave in to them. No, he wasn’t happy about this at all. Kurt hoped that it was a false alarm.
**********
It wasn’t.
Two weeks later, Kurt had missed his secondly monthly bleeding so there was no doubt. He had to tell Blaine.
Burt had been told the previous week and had been shocked. He had always been protective of Kurt but never judgemental, and now his little boy was all grown up and having a baby himself. But had never really allowed himself to think of the consequences of Kurt’s unusual gender; if he had, it would have been less of a shock. Still, he recovered admirably and told Kurt he fully stood by any decision he wanted to make about Blaine. Burt wasn’t happy with the council or Blaine; no boy should have had the right to force themselves on Kurt without parental consent. But he was pleased with the way Blaine had acted in the subsequent weeks; that was the sign of a man Burt would be happy to have as a son-in-law.
Blaine was having problems of his own. Seven weeks had gone by without any sign of Kurt being pregnant. The men were beginning to talk, and some were teasing Blaine about his lack of fertility. Karofsky had even mentioned taking Kurt off his hands in two months time since Blaine obviously wasn’t enough of a man to make him pregnant.
There was no way that Blaine could tell them that he had only been intimate with Kurt once. He would receive even more ridicule and Kurt would get into trouble for not complying. Blaine didn’t want either of those things.
Therefore, he wasn’t in the best of moods when he went to see Kurt that evening. However, after just a few minutes with the Hummels, Blaine’s mood lifted. Everyone was so friendly and he always enjoyed watching Kurt interact with his siblings. Just from watching, Blaine knew that Kurt would be good with their own children. Whenever that might be.
When the rest of the Hummels went to bed, Kurt and Blaine were left alone. Blaine suddenly realised that Kurt had been very quiet all evening and was about to ask why when the other boy spoke.
“I have something to tell you.” Kurt couldn’t think of any other way to start. He didn’t even want to tell Blaine but he had to before it became obvious.
Please let him be ready to make love, Blaine prayed. He respected Kurt’s wishes but it had been nearly two months! “Yes?”
“I’m with child.”
Blaine was speechless and couldn’t believe what he had heard. “You’re pregnant?” he asked for clarification. When Kurt nodded, Blaine felt an overwhelming joy inside him. A baby! Kurt was having his baby!
Kurt was taken by surprise when Blaine suddenly kissed him. Instead of pulling back though, he found himself swept up in the joy Blaine was feeling. The kiss made him feel good. Really good. In fact, he found himself getting hard, which was a weird sensation.
After a few more moments, Blaine drew back and took hold of Kurt’s hands. “I’m so happy right now,” he gushed. This was just what he wanted!
“I noticed,” Kurt said dryly, still trying to catch his breath after that kiss; it had literally taken his breath away.
Blaine simply beamed at him. He had been planning a proposal for weeks now, against the tradition of the village; men usually just assumed it was their right if they got a woman pregnant. “Kurt, I’m so glad I’ve had the chance to get to know you these past seven weeks. You’re kind, funny, sarcastic, loyal and I can’t imagine living the rest of my life without you. Will you do me the honour of marrying me?”
Kurt’s heart skipped a beat. Blaine was actually asking him! He had never heard of anyone else being asked - only told that they would marry. It seemed that Blaine was learning not to always follow tradition. “Yes.”
Blaine hugged Kurt this time, drawing the other boy in close. He would finally get his dream! Kurt would be his wife, and cook and clean for him, and be there at the end of a long day to comfort him…
“One thing,” Kurt interrupted Blaine’s thoughts. “I might have to do the womanly work around the house but I am not a woman. I will not be your wife. I will be your husband or nothing at all.” He might have to put up with that from the rest of the village but he didn’t want to have Blaine treat him the same way.
That put a slight dampener on Blaine’s joy but he nodded anyway. It would take some adjustment in his thinking but he could do it. When he wasn’t thinking about marriage, he already was thinking about Kurt as a man so it shouldn’t be too hard.
“To that end,” Kurt continued, pressing the advantage while he had it, “I want to help with building the house. I have ideas.” He smiled shyly yet proudly at Blaine. Kurt had had the perfect house all planned out for a year in the event that he got to choose where he lived.
Blaine frowned. Wives never helped to build their house… Blaine mentally slapped himself. Kurt had just told him never to classify him as a wife and here he was, already doing it. Still… “Kurt, have you ever worked with stone before?”
Kurt sighed with exasperation. “Blaine, my father’s a stone mason. Do you think he never taught me anything?” He had never been able to boast about his skills but there were some houses around the village who had fancy stonework done by him. Burt had always claimed credit because no-one would have accepted work done by Kurt but that didn’t lessen the achievement.
“Really?” Blaine hadn’t really thought about it before.
“The council might have said that I could only do certain things but they can’t stop me from doing other things at home,” Kurt confirmed. He was so much more than the label the council had put on him. “I’ve built fences and sheds with my father, and I want to help build our house.”
Blaine couldn’t think of any objections that didn’t sound condescending. But there would be some problems. “The men won’t want to work with you.”
“Then we’ll only get men who will,” Kurt stated. “My father will help us. Have you got any friends who would?” He hoped so because it would be very hard work for just three of them, and he doubted that the others would let him do much work because of the pregnancy. Also, Burt shouldn’t be working much because he had been sick.
“I’m not sure.” Blaine had helped his friends with their houses but whether they would help him if Kurt was there… “I’ll ask them.” It would take a long time to build their house but as long as it was done before the baby was born, he would be happy.
They talked for a little longer before Blaine left. Kurt wasn’t entirely sure that he had done the right thing by accepting Blaine’s proposal but at least the other boy was willing to listen to him. That made him better than anyone else in the village. And there was the thing that he seemed to be attracted to Blaine now, if that kiss was any indication.
Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Part 3...