Autumn has arrived in Twinbrook. It's Saturday morning, 8:00 a.m., and after much deliberation, Nelson has decided to help Miss Riddle with some handyman work and accept the job. Before making a final decision, however, he wanted to have a look around and see what kind of work awaited him. The old lady's house was in a quiet residential area with several houses in a row. Hers was the last and stood out somewhat with its soft yellow hue. "Okay, it doesn't look that old. Well, some of the windows do… phew, let's see."
After knocking on the door, he waited patiently until it opened. He knew that no young person lived in this house who could just sprint to the door. "Ah, what a surprise. I wasn't expecting you so soon, young man." / "Yes, hn, I just wanted to come by early." / "Well then, come in.".
Nelson stepped inside and stopped again just a few feet inside the front door. He looked around, very surprised, because he had a completely different idea of what the house's interior would look like. There was also a smell in the room that he didn't recognize, and he inhaled it slightly. "What…" / "Egyptian incense sticks, I hope not too strong? They calm me down."
"No, it doesn't smell bad. And… who's that?" he asked curiously, seeing the picture that immediately caught the eye upon entering the house. "Well, who do you think it is?" / "Hmm, well, I don't think… it's Columbus, I've seen some pictures of him in class. I don't know… someone famous?" / "Well, he was certainly famous in certain regions, yes. It's my great-great-great-grandfather. He was a very good tracker."
"Tracker… So something like a hunter?"/ "Oh, no, I'd say more like a… detective"/ "Ah, so a medieval version of Sherlock Holmes"/ "gnhnhn, yes, you could say that"/ "O.K., so… How can I help you here?"/ "With a few things, starting with the bathrooms"/ "O.K., is something dripping?".
She showed him the first bathroom. It was very small and only served as a guest bathroom when she had company for a short time. "The fixtures are quite wobbly. Actually, I bought a new sink and a matching vanity a long time ago, but I never found the time to install it all…" / "Okay, wait, I'll make a note of that."
In the living area, Nelson didn’t initially think there was much to do, but the old lady already had a task for him. “I’d really like to replace the old wallpaper. That pattern is making me nervous. Don’t worry, the wood paneling can stay.” / “The wallpaper? Oh… um, I’ve never actually replaced wallpaper before, but I can watch some videos about it.”
As she showed the boy around the house, he quickly noticed that the wallpaper with the irritating pattern was on almost every wall. Then he took a deep breath, aware that the tasks she was asking him to perform were not easy. "Replace wallpaper, check lamps…" he jotted down in his notebook.
The next room had also been decorated with an unusual wallpaper pattern long ago. "That was all fashionable back then, but not anymore, and I don't really like it anymore either." / "Okay, so here too." / "Hmm. The wooden shelves desperately need a new coat of varnish. But you can take your time with that until you're a bit more experienced; I'd rather spare you the unpleasant fumes for now.“.
After the two had left the reading room, the old woman headed straight for the narrow staircase leading upstairs. "Um, what about these two rooms?" / "Oh, they're just my bedroom and a guest room; I'm quite happy with everything there for now. Please follow me..." The stairs creaked with every step as they ascended. Yet they still looked quite sturdy.
Once they reached the attic, Nelson barely had time to turn his head in any direction. She gently nudged him a little towards the left wing. In that corner was some neatly arranged junk and even an easel. "Oh, you paint?" / "No, this easel has been sitting untouched in this spot for a very long time. I just clean it of cobwebs and dust every now and then." / "And all that stuff? What about it?"
"They're all memories. They can stay here, they have to… Nelson?" She suddenly looked at him with a serious and penetrating gaze that almost sent a shiver down his spine. "Yes?" / "I can trust you, my boy, can't I?" He found the question unusual, but then he answered. "Yes, of course." / "All right. Turn around then."…
Or How Burt Hummel Mashed the Hummels and Hudsons Into One Functioning Family.
Characters(s): Kurt, Burt, Carole, Finn, with short appearances by the New Directions guys and various ops who mostly take up space.
Rating: PG13
Summary: Somehow the Hummel household and the Hudson household had to come together…
Chapter One Chapter Two
Chapter three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter 6
Chapter seven
8.
Burt left them inside and went to watch as Kurt had the whole lot of the boys in the yard focused and organized. Kurt had replaced all the power strips with the ones that were made for outdoor use and were also timers and had sets of boys wrapping each bush and tree with lights from the untangled bunches, another two groups were resetting up inflatables…in smaller groupings which he suspected Kurt had had a hand in putting together. The final group of boys was handing Kurt up lights as he quickly and efficiently set the clips and then hung the lights…tool belt sitting on his hips. He and Mike were leading the whole crowd in Christmas songs and most were singing without much fuss. Before long Sam and Puck came out, carrying Artie down the porch stairs, carting out the last few strands of lights they’d managed to get working and untangled.
They joined in the singing and Kurt took a moment between songs to set them to the task of lining the walk with Kurt’s little lantern lights.
The lights were up within an hour and half, even those around the door and windows. The inflatables were all filled and every tree and bush was lit. Kurt had headed to the garage and pulled out the two small trees that flanked the door on the porch and he was even kind enough to let Mike flip the switch to light the whole house up. Even though it wasn’t dark, you could see it.
“Cookies and hot chocolate will be served in the house. Thank you all for your help.” Kurt said loudly, smiling. “Why don’t you go find a movie to watch or play video games while I get it all together?”
The crowd of boys whooped and hollered as they rushed to the house.
Kurt stood for a few moments smiling at his work.
“I find most the inflatables questionable,” Kurt finally said. “However, I really like the way the guys did the bushes and trees. It doesn’t look too bad all mixed together since we have white or red and green and we kept the house just white and spaced the red and green evenly throughout the multicolored mixtures about the yard. It would be overwhelming with more colors of lights, but this works. Amazing what happens when Men are in charge.”
Burt snorted as Kurt flounced off.
“He might have a point.” Mike said.
Puck and Artie started to laugh. By the time they all were back in the house, Kurt had water warmed enough to start serving hot chocolate and had produced several tins of cookies which he was passing around with strict rules to the number allowed each pass, which all the boys were following. Burt doubted the fear Kurt had installed in the guys would last past the day, but for now they were all behaving. Finn was sitting in the corner of the living room pouting…there was no other word for it. They settled for a movie…Jingle All The Way…and Kurt ran Christmas Trivia for extra cookies until all the cookies were gone. Football Nelson tied with Hockey Nelson for the most extra cookies, leading Puck to complain for a good ten minutes before Kurt promised to deliver some to glee club on Tuesday. When the movie was over, the boys switched to video games. Burt asked Puck when the Hudson Lights Parties usually ended (well, he asked Finn first, but Finn informed him that Finn wasn’t talking to him because he let Kurt be mean and Carole had already holed up their room), and ended up ordering Pizzas to feed everyone for dinner. After another round of video games, Burt sent everyone home. It was well past seven in the evening by then and Burt was tired and annoyed and had a headache. Those boys, even when being calm and nice to each other, were loud.
Carole was in their room…pouting. She went up there after Burt tried to speak to her while Kurt passed out cookies. She took a six pack of wine coolers, a bottle of rum, and a carton of ice cream. She was upset Kurt had ruined the Hudson Lights Party and insisted Burt wasn’t being fair about anything. Burt tried for several minutes to get an understanding on how Kurt ruined it and what he wasn’t being fair about, but received nothing coherent for an answer before giving up on that topic. Then Burt had asked if she and Finn wanted to shop for the families the shop helped Sunday afternoon or Monday evening and she said THEY wouldn’t be doing such a silly thing…if the Hummels wanted to do that then they could but she didn’t see why the Hudsons should join in, it wasn’t something the Hudsons did, after all.
“I thought we were combining traditions?” Burt said after her rant.
“We are,” Carole said. “We do things the Hudson way and you join us in doing so. See combined. By the way, I invited all the girls from work over on Thursday night for the Hudson Christmas Girls Night Out Party. Tell Kurt that I promised them makeovers and that he needs be ready to give make overs to about ten to fifteen ladies. The tree needs to be up and decorated by then. I told the girls we were doing pink and purple Victorian theme this year, tell Kurt to get it right before Tuesday-ish.”
“Purple and Pink? We don’t have pink and purple. And did you ask Kurt if he was available?” Burt asked.
“Pink and purple Victorian, Burt. Roses and lace and ribbons and velvet and lots of frills. You don’t need to own it already; Kurt can go buy it tomorrow. I’ve always wanted a pink and purple Victorian tree. I’d like the little china dolls in pink or purple dresses and the little boots. They need to be leather and white. I’m sure Kurt can find them somewhere…even if he has to go to Dayton or Columbus or whatever. Since he is supposedly working next week he can use his paycheck as reimbursement to the family account for the decorations. That way the household account doesn’t have to cover them and we’ll be sure to have plenty for Finn’s gifts. And No, I didn’t ASK Kurt. Why would I? He is home so he should be fine to do it. We want the good stuff too. Quality polishes and oils and whatever else he uses.”
“I think you should ask him if he can do it.”
“He is a kid. We can just tell him to do it.”
“I’ll have him get you a list of the items he’ll need by Tuesday so you can pick them up.” Burt said. “If he agrees.”
“I’m not buying the stuff; he can buy it or it can come from the household account and you can make him pick it up. I won’t have time between now and Thursday. I work on most those days and the days free I have to get my hair done and go clothing shopping for the party. I don’t have anything that is right for a girls’ night out party. This needs to happen, Burt. I promised the ladies. Also, we are providing dinner but I haven’t decided on what yet, it needs to be elegant and really nice and we need drinks and since Kurt did so well at Thanksgiving I figured he could make those up. We’ll need more alcohol, we used most of what we got at Thanksgiving time then and what was left is nearly out. Oh, and we need to buy like fifteen or twenty gifts for bingo wins, which is what we will be playing after dinner. Maybe we should aim for thirty gifts. That way we can play longer. And Kurt will need to set up the bingo calling station by where he’ll be mixing drinks, so he can do both, if you don’t run the bingo game.”
Burt took note of the half empty Gin bottle on the counter as Carole said she’d told the ladies she’d cover the gifts this year instead of having each lady bring one, so they had to work those in too, and those were not the same as bingo gifts. He started to rub his head to try to ease the headache that was forming, only somewhat listening as she insisted that since they had money from the jars at the shop, they could just use some of that to buy the Girls’ Night gifts and get good things this time around, and Carole could save her money for Finn’s Christmas gifts. Oh…and she gave Finn the night off, so they shouldn’t even think of pulling him in to call the bingo game. And she had promised the ladies that they could have individual goodie bags filled with neat stuff so Burt was surely going to offer up free auto care and she was sure he could convince Kurt to go out and buy them really nice beauty items, she’d get him complexion lists.
Burt looked out to the living room where Kurt was managing the cookie distribution and running trivia. Kurt’s shoulders were slumped and he had dark circles under his eyes. Burt realized Kurt hadn’t eaten lunch; Kurt hadn’t been given a long enough break from hosting Finn’s party…Carole’s party…to find himself anything after he came downstairs. It was then that Burt then said No. He was not offering up free anything. He might have had Carole asked, but since she did not he was not going to do so. Also, she could go buy stuff for goodies bags, Kurt was not. Carole stomped up the stairs after grabbing the ice cream and the box of wine coolers and the rum.
Burt settled in to help Kurt manage and monitor the horde for the rest of the afternoon. It took him and Kurt and Puck and Mike to get the guys to leave when he said things were done. Apparently sometimes the guys just stayed until they had to go home due to school…gaming and eating. Puck and Mike waved as they left, after reminding Kurt to bring cookies to Glee.
Burt was trying to decide when he became the dad to three teens and why he hadn’t noticed Carole’s tendency to pout when things didn’t go her or Finn’s way. He was well aware he ought not to have voiced the three teen opinion as he tried to wrestle control of the TV from Finn after he sent all the boys home, he just hadn’t expected Kurt to hear it. Kurt did hear it and did voice his opinion. (Kurt’s comment of having only been dating her for a year and that she had always put on her best face when he was focused on her hadn’t been helpful. Neither had Kurt’s comment that if Burt would have listened to him better about what things were like when he was in the hospital and when he was first at home but not very with it yet, maybe he would have been more prepared for it all. That just made Burt more upset actually. He had been certain Kurt had been the one exaggerating or telling the fib about that time, except…after the last few weeks he wasn’t so certain Kurt was the one exaggerating anymore. And that irked him. If Kurt hadn’t been cleaning up from the day long infiltration of teen boys, Burt would have sent him to his room. Except Burt was rather reluctant to interrupt Kurt’s cleaning, especially since it hadn’t been ‘Kurt’s’ party and so he shouldn’t have had to be cleaning and Kurt hadn’t reminded him of that yet. But Kurt was cleaning so Burt wouldn’t have to. He knew Kurt was worried about his health and worried even more since he wasn’t there to make sure his diet was being overseen properly and he had the help in the shop he needed and he was doing his exercises (all of which wasn’t being done as well as Burt should have but Carole and Finn needed his attention so maintaining the things he was supposed to be doing was hard.) Finn was sassing at Kurt…again… while he sat on the remote so Burt couldn’t get to it and Kurt was sassing at everyone while he cleaned. The din had lessened but it was still too much.
