All the Other Ghosts (Boyxboy Superhero AU Fanfic (Klaine))

Chapter 16

They broke in through the skylight. Phalanx climbs over the edge of the building's roof as the Ghost appears again next to its cracked-open frame, crouching with a gloved hand on the glass to look down through it; he glances back at Phalanx, puts a finger to his lips, then swings himself through the skylight already fading from view again.

Phalanx pads over. Underneath him, there's a muffled thud. He crouches, shields flickering nervously in front of him, but there's a dragging noise and the Ghost appears again on the floor underneath the skylight, holding an unconscious guy in a bandana by the scruff of his hoodie. "The rest must be deeper in already," he says, very low, as Phalanx lets himself hang down by the arms before dropping to the floor inside.

"Why an office block? What are they stealing from here?"

"Data, probably." The Ghost ties the guy's hands to a radiator and then pulls his own bandana up and, not unkindly, gags him with it; they don't want him waking up unexpectedly and alerting his friends to their presence. "Personal information. It takes less than you'd think to clone someone's identity."

Phalanx looks around the dull, lifeless corridor - god the idea of an office job makes him want to whimper a bit, he likes people, he likes talking to people and helping people, a cubical and a computer screen would crush him inch by inch - and says, "It'd be nice to do this without trashing the place too much."

"That's what I thought. So. Nice and quiet. And follow them down . . ."

*

Burt's wearing the robe Kurt got him for Christmas so he can say he wore it (he doesn't have to add out loud 'the once') and be honest. It's got some designer's name sewn in the neck, it's probably an incredibly fancy one, Burt doesn't get why you need a designer robe. The clothes thing he can kind of get, he's lived with Kurt and with Carole long enough, he gets that they like to look nice. A robe, though? Who sees you in a robe?

"You don't want to look nice for me?" Carole had said before leaving for her shift, all sparkly-eyed smiling, straightening it on his shoulders and tugging the belt right.

So Burt sits in front of the TV in the robe, channel surfs, his mind's on the clock more than the screen. Nearly eleven o' clock the night before New Year's Eve and he knows Kurt'll be out there now, Kurt and his boyfriend, doing god knows what. He tries not to think about it, but when he tries to think about other things - Kurt sitting cross-legged under the tree doling presents out on their strange late Christmas which felt all the more festive for it, in his pyjamas and hair not even combed and organising everyone very particularly to get the presents into the right piles - he thinks about that kid, out there, facing god knows what. He thinks about Kurt's boyfriend trying to pull the Santa hat he got him for Christmas (some little in-joke judging by Kurt's scowling-delighted-helpless face) onto Kurt's head and Kurt yelling at him about his hair and their scuffled little slap-fight and the way they were laughing, and he thinks about them out there . . .

He tilts his beer, drinks, puts it down again, realises he's staring through an ad for women's razors. He channel hops some more.

Kurt's boyfriend, in a way that Burt really should have expected, is nothing like Burt expected him to be. Why would Kurt date someone in any way predictable? Burt had stood in the airport waiting for them with Carole holding his hand in both of hers to keep it from clenching, trying not to be obviously visibly amused by his low-churning wrath, because he wanted to like this guy, he didn't want to be that father, he isn't that father, anything that makes his son happy must be a good thing to Burt Hummel and he's not that father -

There had been guys before, Burt knew that, Kurt had ended a few phone calls with 'I have to go, I'm seeing someone tonight' like it was an afterthought. He'd never seemed very into any of the guys he dated, never seemed especially enthusiastic about any of it, was never very specific in relating their details to his father; 'some guy', every time. Some guy he met on the subway, in a coffee shop, just some guy. Burt suspects that his son is very bad at saying no to people - that Kurt can't say no to the whole city of New York is the problem, of course - and hell, he's a good looking kid, Kurt. Of course guys notice. And of course Burt wants him to be happy, Burt only and always wants Kurt to be happy, he's not that father, he has no problem with Kurt liking guys, it's just part of the whole bright and shiny Kurt package. It wasn't that there's a guy that Burt had a problem with. The problem, the problem . . .