Epilogue

A/N: Thank you for coming on this journey with me. I love a happy ending, don't you? Here you are, then. Enjoy and see you for the next one.

Dinner at the Anderson home Sunday night was incredibly intimidating for Kurt, knowing how Blaine's parents felt about people like him, starting with when they drove up to the enormous house Blaine had grown up in. Holy smokes, Blaine had grown up in that pile? Dinner was more than a little uncomfortable, especially at the beginning when no one knew what to say, but somehow they all got through it.

Blaine went straight to his father's comfort zone, and asked him how things were going with the company. His dad told him a bit about his plans for expansion with a couple new stores in the east, seeming surprised that Blaine was interested. Kurt hesitatingly asked some questions about what type of market they were catering to, which started a conversation about future opportunities to be explored.

Blaine's mother was very quiet all night, her conversation consisting mostly of asking if they liked the food or wanted anything, but she was watching her son closely. He seemed so changed from the silent, withdrawn, resentful boy she remembered. He had already smiled more tonight than she'd seen him do in the last six months, though it was mostly at his boyfriend.

She couldn't help noticing the shy loving looks shared between the boys, with her son so obviously head over heels in love with the boy sitting next to him. She decided to pray about it and hopefully she could come to peace with her son loving another man. She found herself smiling when she saw they were holding hands under the table. They seemed so sweet together.

Perhaps it was because he had been living in a safe place of his own where he was accepted, but Blaine felt relaxed and confident that night, finally seeing his parents from a whole new vantage point. His father was likely so insecure from his Nana making him feel inadequate, since she plainly felt his dad was a far call from his grandfather. His mother had always been left out of the loop, and he knew she had never felt like she had been accepted by their family and the people they socialized with.

It was baby steps, at first, over the next few weeks. Burt made sure he was there for him when he needed advice. When Blaine asked Burt how he always knew what to do, he recommended some counselling to help their family be less dysfunctional. He admitted it hadn't always been easy for Kurt and him either, but they had always been able to talk, and that was the key to figuring stuff out.

Blaine and Kurt took that advice to heart, and so they talked about their plans for the future, for that day, the month, the year and the next ten years. Kurt encouraged him to really try to reconnect with his family emotionally. Kurt's family meant so much to him that he wanted Blaine to find that with his own parents.

Blaine finally decided that he would bite the bullet and move back to his parent's house when school started back again, on the condition that he and his parents would go to a family counsellor to learn how they could all relate to each other better. Already he could tell his father was taking time to think before he made pronouncements, and his carefully phrasing them as requests instead of orders made a big difference. "Could you please take out the garbage." sounded a ton better than "You're not going anywhere until the garbage is at the curb."

Blaine had to bite his own lip at first, struggling with having to obey house rules and curfews again after being on his own all summer. They tackled that issue at one of their first counsellor's appointments and his dad finally untied some of the chains, since he'd certainly proved he could be responsible. His father willingly admitted Blaine was a far different person than the entitled brat he'd been, before he had learned what really mattered in life.

It was hard to be so far away from his boyfriend, when Blaine was used to seeing him each and every day, but he told himself that it was only one year until he graduated from Dalton and left his parent's house forever. This was his last chance to try to learn to be a family with his parents before he wasn't their boy anymore and at least he and Kurt saw each other at Dalton every day. His and Kurt's future could unfold together after that, wherever it took them.

~ o _ o ~

Over the summer, Blaine had become friends with most of Kurt and Finn's friends, who were mostly the Glee club kids. He introduced his Warbler friends to them, and he and Kurt both wondered what would happen if Brittany and Jeff ended up together, two stereotype blondes, but they didn't date each other very long. Brit started dating Santana instead, which kind of took everyone by surprise. Jeff and Quinn seemed a more successful couple since Jeff actually hid his Mensa IQ rather well and Quinn was quietly thoughtful and brilliant.

On the other hand, James and Mercedes resisted being lumped together because they were both black, but gradually they found more and more in common. By the end of the summer, they gave up resisting and were an item too. Wes asked Tina out, but she was more interested in the other Asian, since she had been quietly in love with Mike for ages, before he finally noticed her when somebody else was paying her some attention.

There was one big pool party in August at Blaine's house with both crowds of their friends there that resulted in lots of laughter, dancing and music. Somebody was always breaking into song and dance, somewhere. Blaine's mother stood in her upstairs window and smiled down at the kids her boys considered friends, and wondered where they'd learned their accepting attitudes.

It seemed to her that nobody cared that Blaine and Kurt were together, treating them like any other couple in the gang. She watched Blaine casually drop a kiss on Kurt's cheek when he brought him a drink, and Kurt whisper in his boyfriend's ear while he rubbed sunblock on him. Blaine laughed and turned back to wink at Kurt, with a broad grin. Then they stood, Blaine with Kurt's arms lovingly wrapped around him, while they watched Finn cook burgers. Finn laughingly threatened his brother with the spatula, and Blaine dodged it, protecting Kurt. She wished she'd had friends like those, when she was younger. Maybe she wouldn't be so lonely now.

Everyone around them could see Kurt and Blaine were falling more and more in love, with every moment they spent together. They glowed with happiness when they looked at each other, and that was the most critical thing to Burt. Blaine treated his boyfriend like he couldn't believe Kurt was actually real, making his kid happier than he'd ever seen him. Burt knew he had already lost his little boy forever, and now his heart was Blaine's.

It was that observation that was instrumental in helping him come to terms with one of the most difficult decisions he'd ever had to make. Burt had often been sleepless at the thought that his boys might be caught making out in the truck by some homophobic assholes, so he finally sat them down and told them Kurt could spend time alone with his boyfriend, at Blaine's place. At least he knew they loved and respected each other and what more could you ask, for your son's first lover?

Kurt knew he had the best father in the world, the day he agreed to let him have some private time with Blaine, the tears slipping unheeded down his face when he hugged him. So now they were allowed to go hang out in Blaine's loft, as long as it wasn't during business hours and Kurt was home by his curfew.

Burt laid down some ground rules for them, before he gave them his blessing. He gave them a couple of informative books he'd ordered on the internet and some pamphlets on safe gay sex. His final gift was a whole case of condoms which made Kurt and Blaine stare goggle eyed with embarrassment, but Burt wasn't going to evade an uncomfortable subject, when it came to his son. They sheepishly agreed to use protection, and not rush into anything, before they escaped his lecture.

They talked about that too, discussing what they were ready for emotionally, listening to soft music in background music in Blaine's loft. They mutually decided they were going to try to save the last barrier to sexual intimacy for after graduation, when they were officially adults, but that left a whole lot of other awesome things to try out. Once they had the opportunity and the privacy, kissing quickly turned into caresses, which turned into revealing more skin, which inevitably turned into much, much more.

The idiot smiles on their faces couldn't be pried off, for the first couple of weeks, no matter how annoying Puck and Finn were when they teased them. They both knew it was mostly jealousy, since neither of them had anyone of their own to love.

~ o _ o ~

It was only a week and a half before school started back that Kurt finally got an envelope in the mail, with the Dalton crest on it. Carole held it up to the light when it came, but the heavy watermarked paper was too heavy to read the contents. It almost killed her to have to wait until the men came home for supper.

Kurt's family and Blaine stood around Kurt, vibrating with excitement while he opened it, his hands shaking so hard with nerves he almost dropped it. His voice shook as he read to his parents that he was accepted for the next school year, with nearly a full scholarship to Dalton Academy! He whooped in happiness as Blaine held him so tight he could hardly breathe, and then swung him around.

His family all cheered and hugged each other excitedly, knowing how much a diploma from an exclusive prep school and the contacts from Dalton could do for his plans to go on to a fashion school or a drama and performance school. Blaine's acceptance letter the next day was anticlimactic, with the scholarship application void, now that he was moving back home.

~ o _ o ~

Ten months later…

Kurt raced into his dorm room, striped off the blazer and dress shirt and hopped around the room trying to take off his trousers. The outfit he had chosen last night was waiting on the bed for him to don it and then meet Blaine. A boy with black hair and a charming smile stuck his head in the door. "Come on Hummel, move your sweet little ass. The bus is leaving in ten minutes." Kurt laughed at Nick's teasing, but he moved his sweet little ass faster, though he knew they were going nowhere without him.

He couldn't believe how his life had changed since last year. He'd gone from detesting Monday mornings when he had to go back to school, wary of every passing jock, to enjoying every minute of his life here at Dalton. He dearly loved his boyfriend, easily the sexiest boy in the world. He had loads of friends, who appreciated his unusual voice, since he filled out the chords in the Warbler's acapella choir so beautifully. They had won their Sectionals and Regionals competitions, beating New Directions and now the bus was about to leave for the Finals. They treated him like a star here at the Dalton Academy, he and his boyfriend, who still got a lot of the solos, though he had to fight Kurt for every one of them.

The Warblers made a last minute pitch to Mike, with a possible scholarship offer to him too, if he would give them a hand with their choreography, but now that he was with Tina, he politely declined. He preferred the freedom he had at McKinley over the homogenous rows of blazers he would have had to work with at Dalton anyway. He gave in and showed Kurt and Blaine a couple of moves that might have been incorporated into a few numbers for Finals, though they had to promise not to tell anyone at McKinley.

The moves worked, or at least those, their hard work, their beautiful harmonies, their teamwork and their energy and enthusiasm worked to win them Show Choir Finals. They brought back the obnoxiously kitschy trophy to Dalton to be proudly displayed in the front foyer with a large print of the Warblers immortalized above it, as a tribute that would endure for decades. Kurt, Blaine and Nick, the soloists featured in the completion, each proudly wore their individual gold medals on ribbons in the front row.

~ o _ o ~

Nine years later…

Burt sat back in a chair, watching the kids build a fort under the dining table and reflected how grateful he was that he had invited the scruffy-looking boy from the park to come to work for him that day, long ago.

It had been a given that the boys would move to New York to go to University, and with an application coming from Dalton, they had been accepted at both their first and second choices.

After due consideration, Blaine opted for a business degree, and Kurt took Fashion Design. They both auditioned for small off-Broadway parts and volunteered for background stuff, at least until they finished school. They met tons of performers through Rachel, while she attended NYADA. The apartment the boys shared was usually bursting with friends, music and happiness.

They always went home to Ohio to visit their families for holidays and Christmas, and when Cooper got engaged, were thrilled to learn his parents invited the couple home to meet his fiancé. When they arrived, Cooper's parents asked him to be a part of their lives again and surprised him by restoring his access to his trust fund.

Blaine and Kurt exchanged rings in their second year of school, though they decided not to marry until after Blaine graduated. Kurt was working very closely on group projects with other people in his class, and Blaine jealously wanted to mark him as officially his. Kurt let him, since he figured he was Blaine's forever anyway, heart and soul. Blaine tried to convince him to elope to an island somewhere but Kurt won that battle, of course, since he'd been planning the wedding for years already.

Blaine talked his father into expanding Anderson Furnishings in New York City, in partnership with his fiancé. The contacts they had made in New York, through Blaine's grandmother and in several wealthy Dalton families made Kurt's and Blaine's new subsidiary called Andel's Heart of the Home an instant success, breathing vibrant new life into the rather stale line of traditional furnishings. Kurt encouraged Blaine's mother Helena's natural talent for design and the two of them developed her ideas into an original wonderful sideline called Helena's Home.

After that, Helena and Kurt became business partners and she and Kurt opened their own design shop in the fashion district, offering one-of-a-kind clothing, object d'art and home fashions she either found or helped him design. Having their own businesses made it much easier for the boys to take time off to perform on the side, doing what they loved.

A play they performed in, featuring a children's choir evolved into another project, with the two of them trying to develop an acapella children's choir. They both decided they loved working with the kids, though the project was rather short lived, since the kids were four times the hassle that adults were, with their parents always thinking their kid should have had the lead and squawking about where Janey or Ethan stood.

They were stuck between a rock and a hard place, since they knew they had to keep the parents on scene. The simple fact that they were gay made them more susceptible to accusations of abuse, and they weren't going to risk any bad situations. They turned it over to a music connection instead, a motherly looking woman with the soul of a parade sergeant. She quickly banished the parents to an off stage room with a closed circuit feed to watch their kids on. Brilliant!

Blaine and Kurt had been married for five years, before they decided they were ready to start their family. They had a surrogate bear the child with a mixture of both their sperm. The boy, named Marc, proved to be obviously Blaine's with that head full of black curls and his enormous brown eyes. He was just over two when they had their second child, Evelyn, named after Blaine's beloved grandmother, who had recently passed away at the age of eighty eight. The little girl was Blaine's darling, with a reflection of Kurt's blue eyes looking back at him, though her hair was more blonde than her daddy's.

When they all went home for Christmas and holidays to Ohio, the children played with Cooper's and Dinah's three kids and made everybody half deaf with the shrieks of laughter as they chased each other around the enormous house. It wasn't just the kids running around either; their grandparents were almost as bad as the kids. What a change from the atmosphere Blaine had grown up with!

It was such a battle for the first two years deciding who got to spend Christmas with the grandkids that they all eventually started spending Christmas together at the spacious Anderson's home with the Hummels joining them there too, with Finn and Rachel coming along with their son Berton, when they could. Carole and Helena had become close when the grandkids came along, and they were in the kitchen now, chatting over a bottle of wine.

Burt knew he had been right to think he was the luckiest man in the world when he and Elizabeth had looked proudly into the depths of his newborn baby boy's eyes. He remembered wondering who he would grow up to be, imagining all sorts of things for him. None of them were even close to what actually happened, but he was even more proud of him now, as he watched him kiss his husband and send him out with a pat on the bum, to collect the toys, clothes and blankies that were distributed all over the house, beginning the process of packing up to go home again.

Burt loved them all, but holy smokes it was so blessedly peaceful when they left again.