36 Questions

Question 35:

Question 35: Of all the people in your family, whose death would you find most disturbing? Why?

They had spent the night trying to make the bedroom habitable from all the soot so they could sleep. It was already morning when Kurt and Blaine finally let their bodies fall in bed and they sighed in unison. Blaine chuckled:

"What a night!"

"Tell me about it! I think I'll call my dad to take it out of my mind and then sleep for a week."

"Good idea."

Kurt bumped Blaine's nose:

"Need emotional support to call your father?"
"Yes, a lot! Call yours first. Want some privacy?"

"No, and I wouldn't mind cuddling either. Stay; be my pillow."

The phone ringed a couple of times and Burt picked it up:

"Hi, kiddo."

"Hi, dad."

"How much do you want?"

"What?"

Burt laughter filled Kurt's ear:

"Come on, for a son to call his old man unannounced is to ask for money."

"Am I such a bad son?"

"No. What's up?"

Kurt took a deep breath and stated to play with his engagement ring on his finger:

"Well, dad, I want you to stay calm. Something happened. Last night. Blaine and I are alright."

Burt's tune was more serious than his normal playful ways:

"Spill it out, Kurt."

"There was a fire. I'm calling you so soon so you can hear it from me. As I said, Blaine and I are alright. We lost nothing important, but the apartment is a mess."

"You're the best kid ever, kiddo. Calling to calm me down and everything."

"Thank you, dad. How's everything? You, Carole, Lima..."

"Let's cut to the chase, kiddo, I have cancer."

The words died in Kurt's throat. He felt like the little boy who had just lost his mother.

"B-b-but dad..."

"Yeah, kiddo, I believe in giving bad news like ripping off a band-aid."

Several questions hanged over Kurt's mind at a million miles per hour. How serious was that? Was it treatable? And the worst of them all: was his father going to die?

Blaine started to get fidgety next to Kurt. It must be written in his face that something was wrong. He sat up after Kurt.

"What's the matter, gorgeous?"

Kurt wanted to answer his fiancé but saying the words felt like making it more real. He felt it growing inside of him. It grew and grew and burst up in crying. The ugly kind. In seconds, he was sobbing. He heard some words coming from his dad like "surgery", "prostate" and "prognostics". Blaine, by his side, was trying to understand what was happening but without interrupting the phone call. Kurt heard him sighing resigned and pulling the mess that was Kurt against his chest.

With red eyes and snot coming out of his nose, Kurt let himself be held and let the tears run down. He was completely ruining Blaine's silk pajamas. The ones he himself had gotten Blaine for his birthday. The ones so expensive. But it didn't matter. Nothing else mattered. He was going to lose his dad and become an orphan. His dad, his family, the person who raised him and could read him like no one else. His rock, his anchor. He felt one of Blaine's arms closing strongly around him while his other hand took the phone from Kurt.

"Burt? It's Blaine."

Kurt allowed himself to feel the comfort of that embrace. His Blaine's embrace. His rock, his anchor, his new home. Meanwhile, he heard some "Mmhmm"s from his fiancé at the phone with his dad. Blaine hung up and looked at him. A look filled with love, and compassion, and concern. The tears almost jumped out of Kurt's eyes and cascaded down his cheeks.

Blaine said nothing but kissed Kurt's tears away.

"You're kissing my bogies too."

Blaine chuckled:

"You always zig when I think you're about to zag. I love that about you."

"You'll need to love me for the rest of my life, since I'm about to..."

Kurt had no courage to say the end of the sentence out loud. Like reading his mind, Blaine put it down in words:

"You are not going to lose your father."

"How do you know that?"

"I just do."

Blaine adjusted his arms around Kurt and kissed the top of his head. He was trying to make Kurt lay down with him, but he got up to look into Blaine's eyes:

"That fire was an omen. Things are going to go sour for us from here on."

"Kurt, for God's sake, calm down. Don't confuse your cold feet with your fear. Our lives are about to change and that's scary. But we're together. We're going to marry and have kids and your father will be there to scare me in that way of his of protecting you and to be the best grandfather a kid could ask for."

Kurt could see it – he carries the youngest in his arms while their elder kid ran towards Burt shouting "Grandpa!"; Blaine by his side with a hand on his shoulder, and Carole coming from the kitchen carrying a tray of freshly baked cookies, and Finn... The image exploded in his mind like a balloon wilting. Finn would never see his kids nor would Burt. And, like that, the sobbing began again.

Blaine held him by the side and posed his legs in Kurt's knees and back. He kissed Kurt's exposed shoulder and grabbed his hand.

"I'll be by your side through all of this."

"Th- thank you."

"No need to thank me, gorgeous; when I proposed was through good times and bad times. I love you, Kurt. I want to feel your kiss as we celebrate that your father is cancer free."

Kurt sighed with his eyes not focusing anything in particular. His chest was tired from all the heavy crying. He felt Blaine's lips on the skin of his shoulder and tried to think of nothing else.