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“Dad? Dad?”
Kurt immediately hops up from his desk at the sound of his oldest daughter’s obviously distressed voice. “Tracy, what’s wrong?”
Her lip quivers, tears rolling down her face. Her eyes are already so red, so it’s obvious she’s been crying for awhile.
“Gray cheated on me,” she chokes out, breaking down fully as Kurt envelops her in his arms, pulling her close.
“Oh my god, Trace,” he remarks softly, petting through her hair. “I’m so sorry. You don’t deserve this.”
Tracy and Grayson had been going out for almost a year, and he’s not going to lie, the entire family loved the boy they all knew as “Gray.” Kurt knows they’re young — Tracy’s only nearly seventeen — but Gray had been a welcome edition to many meals and family game nights. All of them liked Gray.
“It wasn’t even like a one-time thing,” she continues. “Not that that would change anything, but he cheated on me for over a month!” she cries, hiccuping a little bit.
“Trace, I’m so sorry, honey,” Kurt soothes, pressing a kiss to her head. “I know this hurts a lot.”
“He was sleeping with her, too!” She sobs, almost yelling. “We agreed to wait for awhile, Dad! He even said he wasn’t ready, just like me!”
“Tracy,” Kurt sighs, fighting back tears of his own. Tracy’s pain is nearly palpable, and with his, albeit resolved, history of being on the hurt end of cheating, he can feel every stabbing knife of pain to her heart.
“Tracy,” he tries again. “Sometimes we can’t understand why people we love would do such horrible things. All I can say is that you don’t deserve this, and that you have every right to feel this pain for as long and as deeply as you need to.”
She nods, breathing deeply. There’s a few moments of silence before she looks up at Kurt, her blue eyes searching his. “Dad?”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“How long did it hurt when Pops cheated on you? Because I feel like I’m never going to be happy again,” she murmurs, obviously hesitant about asking.
Blaine’s cheating isn’t a secret to their children; the two of them felt it was best to lay everything out in the open about that situation and their recovery from it. That being said, it is still an understandably sensitive topic that no one intentionally brings up.
Kurt sighs. “I don’t really know, hun. The pain lasted for some time, but what really lasted was the emptiness I felt. I just felt like I lost a part of me.”
“Do you think I’m gonna feel that way?”
“I don’t know,” he replies gently. “You know that your dad and I didn’t immediately get back together. We spent a lot of time apart before we found each other again.”
“But what if Gray and I don’t get back together?” She stammers, wiping a few more tears away.
“That might happen. Your dad and I were in the minority of people who got back together. And that’s only because I trusted your dad when he said he wouldn’t do it again,” he explains. “Not everyone can say that.”
“I don’t think I can,” she whispers, and Kurt hugs her close once again.
“That’s okay, sweetie. That’s perfectly okay.”
Suddenly, rapid footsteps sound from the direction of the stairs. Blaine, breathless and obviously worried, runs into the room, coat and scarf still on from his run to the grocery store.
“Tracy! Audrey told me something’s wrong and that I need to come talk to you,” he says, scanning between her tear-stained face and Kurt’s pained expression.
“Gray cheated on me,” she recounts, letting him pull her into his arms as more tears begin to fall again.
“Oh my god,” he breathes, meeting Kurt’s eyes over Tracy’s shoulder. “Oh my god, sweetheart, no. I’m so sorry.”
She merely hugs him tighter, gripping the back of his coat. Blaine feels as if the world stopped around him, and he’s suddenly back in New York on one of the worst nights of his life.
“I’m gonna kill him,” he growls lowly, shaking with rage. “I swear, the next time I see him —“
“Blaine,” Kurt says softly, but firmly. “You don’t mean what you’re saying.”
“No, I absolutely mean what I’m saying!” Blaine shouts, and Tracy takes a step back from him as Kurt crosses his arms.
“Blaine —“
“Tracy doesn’t deserve this!” He cries, angry tears slipping from his eyes. “He threw away the best thing he had —“
“Blaine!”
Blaine falls silent, shoulders heaving with the deep breaths he’s taking in an attempt to keep himself from breaking down completely. Kurt levels a look at him, nodding towards the doorway.
“Go cool down. I’ll meet you in our room in a minute.”
He sighs in defeat, turning to leave, but Tracy quickly envelops him in a tight hug.
“I’m sorry, Trace,” he whispers, and she shakes her head against his shoulder.
“It’s okay. Thank you.”
When she releases him, Kurt nods over at his husband, and Blaine drags himself out of the room and towards his bedroom. As he shuts the door behind him, the tears come in full force, the weight of the situation crushing him.
He flings off his coat and scarf angrily, his body shaking with sobs as he paces around the room before sliding to the floor against a wall in a heap of emotions he hasn’t truly felt for over twenty years.
When the door opens a few minutes later, Blaine doesn’t look up from where he’s buried his head in his knees until he feels a familiar arm wrap around his shoulders and tug him close.
He and Kurt merely sit like that for a short while, Kurt letting Blaine cry softly into his shoulder as he rubs his back soothingly.
“I’m sorry,” Blaine breathes suddenly, swallowing another sob. “I don’t know what came over me, I just was suddenly back there, on that night, and I couldn’t help but think that this is how I made you feel, and —“
“I know,” Kurt replies gently. “I’m not going to lie, I was kind of transported back to that night, too. But that passed quickly. You know why?”
Blaine sniffles, wiping away a rogue tear that runs down his cheek. “Why?”
“Because we’ve grown. We’ve recovered,” Kurt begins. “That was a tiny dark snapshot in our story, but there are over twenty years of bright shining moments that outweigh it.”
“Besides,” he continues. “I never stopped loving you. I was heartbroken, but I really did believe you when you promised you would never do it again.”
“It was the worst decision of my life,” Blaine chokes out. “I’m going to spend my entire life making it up to you.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Kurt says, gripping his shoulder. “Please, please don’t think for a minute that I expect that from you. We’ve both hurt each other in many different ways. But we both pledged to make it up to each other every day of our lives when we got married.”
“I love you, Blaine,” he tilts his husband’s chin so he’s looking up at him, eyes red and watery. “We both have our ghosts. They’ll always be there. But they’re ghosts — they’re dead — for a reason. Sometimes they come back to haunt us, but they never truly live again unless we let them.”
Blaine nods, exhaling deeply. “Thank you.”
“It’s our job to hold each other up in times like these. It’s okay.”
Blaine’s lips tip up into a small smile. “I love you too, you know. Always have, always will.”
Kurt smiles, coaxing him in for a kiss with a hand on the back of his neck. When they break apart, Blaine’s eyes flick over to a spot on Kurt’s shoulder, and he laughs slightly.
“God, I got your shirt so wet.”
“It’s okay. Wouldn’t be the first time.”
Blaine laughs as Kurt winks at him exaggeratedly. “I know that was supposed to be sexual, but I just can’t think of anything other than me dumping boiling hot coffee all over you when you scared me that one time like five years ago.”
“Well, I guess that one was my fault,” Kurt jokes. “I should’ve known that you throw anything you’re holding when you’re scared after countless years of flipped popcorn bowls during horror movies.”
“But it wasn’t all bad,” Blaine teases. “I got to rub burn cream all over you for a week.”
“Ah, enjoyment at the price of my injury,” Kurt replies, standing up and offering a hand to pull Blaine up with him. “Come on, we’ve still got to face the music and be there for our daughter.”
“As long as you give the pep talks and I give the hugs.”
“Deal.”