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The wedding was intense and filled with emotions that the newly deemed step-brothers could barely handle yet. Finn had driven Kurt there earlier that day, a little precursor to the night they were about to have, but Kurt offered to do the ride home. Kurt outwardly said he wanted to do as much as he could for Finn because he appreciated the wedding so much, and this was step one. They were going to start living together, Finn thinks, they can pay each other back anytime. He shrugs it off and sits in the passenger seat, enjoying the calm environment with his brother right next to him.
Burt and Carole warned them that they were going for a duo dinner together as newlyweds, and would be home at Carole’s around one or two in the morning. Finn and Kurt mutually agreed to spend the night together as well, opting for the Hudson house.
As they approached the house, their comfortable silence from the car drifted up until they came inside. Finn breaks the silence. “I know we haven’t moved in together yet, so your clothes and things aren’t here, but do you want to change into something comfier? I probably have some older clothes I can find upstairs that might fit you.”
Kurt smiles at the offer, thankful for his consideration. “Yeah, that’d be great. Thank you, Finn.”
Internally, he is a little bit worried about what Finn will pick out for him, but decides to trust his brother. Only God knows what these clothes will have been through, or the last time they were washed. Finn throws him a thumbs up, promises it’ll be something good, and rushes upstairs for Kurt’s clothes and to change himself.
Meanwhile, Kurt makes himself comfortable, taking off his jacket and putting it on the coat rack near the front door. The evening has made him exceptionally tired, something Finn probably noticed hence the questioning of comfier clothing. Kurt leaves his button up and tie on for some comfort. He’s been around the Hudson house before, a thought which does not go ignored in Kurt’s mind as he tries to push away the memories from last year, and goes to make some tea for himself. A positive memory from last year, one which Kurt smiles at, was his and Carole’s shared appreciation for tea, therefore he knew she’d have something nice.
Finn comes back pretty quickly, quick enough to where Kurt is still waiting for his tea, leaning against the kitchen counter scrolling through his phone. Finn is now in a new outfit, a grey McKinley Titans shirt and black basketball shorts, and he throws the pile of clothes towards Kurt. “Hey Kurt, catch!”
Somehow, Finn had forgotten that Kurt wasn’t a player on the football team the year prior, but, in fact, the kicker for one game. Finn cringes after the clothes, a pair of old grey sweatpants and the light blue t-shirt he has from True Colors last year, leave his hands. Kurt splutters for a second and tries to grab the clothes from the air.
To no avail, Kurt fails. The clothes are on the floor. Kurt looks up at Finn and gives him the biggest side eye, scaring Finn intensely for a moment, but Kurt's scary facade turns into war real quick; a smirk appears on his face.
Finn is fucking terrified. Scary, mad, or revengeful Kurt is not a fun Kurt to be around. Finn goes wide eyed, and he bolts it out of the kitchen and runs into the living room. He picks up a pillow as a shield, only having a few seconds to come up with a defense.
Kurt picks up the pile of clothes and chases after him, and despite his tiredness, it feels natural to run after Finn at this point. Pure boyish-brotherish insanity, Kurt thinks.
Meeting Finn in the living room, who is currently using a comically small pillow to cover his face from Kurt, is where this war truly starts. Kurt throws the clothes back at Finn, who uses the pillow to dodge them away and send them in a different direction. Finn starts laughing at Kurt, shocked that his pillow tactic had just worked. “You missed!”
Kurt takes about half a second to decide if his next move will be worth it. He decides positive, and tackles Finn to the couch. Despite the height difference, Kurt has managed to get himself on top of Finn, the pillow now resting between them, and Finn is sprawled out along the bottom couch cushions.
The two begin to laugh as they fight, both realizing how silly this fight is, but neither will accept defeat. In the commotion, Finn shoves Kurt lightly to get him off of him, while Kurt sneakily snatched the pillow from between them as if he was a speedy, sneaky little bunny, and he starts to use the pillow as a weapon. Finn yelps out at the new addition to their fight, trying harder now to shove his brother off of him.
In the middle of the madness, Finn has the slight thought that he’s always wanted to do something like this with someone. He had his football friends, but everyone was so serious in that group, and no one in the New Directions was actually that close with Finn except for Rachel, but that was different. Finn always wanted a little brother, he always thought the idea of having a smaller version of himself to love and annoy as much as he wanted would be the dream, as well as getting to lead him through life under his influence. Finn thinks for a second, as Kurt attacks him with a pillow, that he may have just gotten his wish.
Kurt gets in around five hits at Finn before Finn snatches the pillow from him. Finn manages to actually get Kurt mostly off of him, and he lightly pushes him to the other side of the couch.
Kurt is in shock that Finn actually just won this fight. Before he can fight any more, Kurt looks down at his outfit. Wrinkles and creases in his wonderfully tailored pants and white button up fill his vision, and Kurt’s mood shifts to a more reserved, yet still not-super-serious, anger. “I am so mad at you but I am choosing to be nice and forgive you because of what you did at the wedding. I am now going to change. You are lucky, Finn Hudson. Extremely lucky.”
Finn responds by putting both his hands up and cringing to himself. Finn makes a mental note to never wake the beast that is ‘angry Kurt’ ever again.
Kurt carefully gets up from the couch as if he moved too quickly, he would explode. In order to not mess up his nice clothes even more, he bends down slowly to pick up the fallen clothes, and he makes the walk towards the bathroom to change.
Finn, who’s just been watching him, begins to chuckle to himself after Kurt leaves. He chooses to not pick up the fallen pillows and stays essentially in the position he was in, then realizing he should go pick out a movie before Kurt chooses The Sound of Music again. Too many New Directions sleepovers have been infiltrated by Kurt and Rachel’s musical insanity, Finn thinks. He gets up to go look through some of their DVD’s and quickly stumbles across Shrek. Perfect.
Finn begins to set up the DVD, and Kurt comes out in his Finn clothes, adorably drowning in the outfit. The grey sweatpants are way too long for him and you can see he’s rolled up the bottoms, and they're baggy-falling slightly below his waist, another place where he’s rolled them up. The blue t-shirt is also too big for him but fits a bit better than expected, still baggy around his torso and upper arms. He looked quite comfortable, and this version of Kurt was one that Finn had never seen before.
Finn stares at him in shock for a second, noting that this outfit somehow made Kurt look a few years younger than he had in the suit. Kurt's hair was tussled up, something Finn has truly never seen, and his cheeks were more pink than normal. Kurt spots Finn staring up at his hair and quickly brings up his hands to flatten it. “Stop looking at me like that! What are we watching? And don’t say-”
Finn just giggles at him, pointing at the tv. “We’re watching shrek, and you are not allowed to pretend to watch it to satisfy me, you are going to actually view the pure, deep beauty that is Shrek numero uno.”
Kurt just rolls his eyes, groans a little bit, and plops himself on the couch. Before Finn can press play, Kurt stops him.
“Wait, should we make popcorn? Also, before you rudely interrupted me, I'd like to go grab my tea from the kitchen. And you are not allowed to make the popcorn, I will do it, because I do not trust you in there.” While listening, Finn stands up from the DVD drawer below the TV.
“Yeah, dude, I'd love that. …Thanks, and sorry about the clothes. I kinda forgot you dont have the best uh … sports knowledge?”
Kurt, again, rolls his eyes at Finn, and stands up to go make the popcorn. On his way to the kitchen, he lightly punches Finn in the shoulder with a playful smile, scrunching up his nose at the sports memory. “It's okay, Finn. I wasn’t actually that upset. Only a little upset. I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed, as Dad would say.”
Kurt smiles at Finn to make sure he knows he’s not being serious, looks down and makes a little exhale through his nose as if he was laughing at himself, and goes off to make the popcorn. Finn awkwardly smiles at Kurt as he leaves, mutters “Cool,” and goes to the couch to wait for his brother.
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Around 5 minutes later Kurt comes back, one bag of popcorn in his hand and his tea mug in the other.
Finn, from the couch, remarks, “Only one bag? Did you not want any?”
Kurt shrugs. “I’ll dabble in your bag, perhaps. One is too much for me and I am a little afraid of butter-stained clothes, even if they’re yours.” Finn, truly not caring about the state of his old clothes, gets up to grab the popcorn and adjust his position on the couch to let Kurt sit down comfortably with him.
The movie begins and they start off in a sort-of-silence, letting the scenes play out in front of them. Kurt has placed himself on the opposite side of Finn on the couch, using the end table to pick up and place down his mug. Kurt couldn’t care for Shrek, he watched it once a few years prior but hated the dirty-ness of it all. He kept imagining himself in the world of Shrek and how much he would hate the immense amounts of mud and grime and other gross fairytale creatures. Or, maybe, he was just too imaginative for his own good. Also, there were too few musical performances for Kurt’s liking.
They watch as Shrek traverses through his swamp, Finn taking bites of the popcorn occasionally, and Finn looks over to Kurt. He’s currently grimacing harder than Finn knew was possible, scrunching up his nose and squinting at the sight of shrek on his screen, gripping his mug with both of his hands as some sort of comfort tactic. Finn decides to forget about the popcorn and scooches closer to Kurt to be sort of next to him, as he finds this sight of Kurt hilarious.
Kurt hadn’t noticed Finn coming up closer to him, eyes locked on the movie. Finn, next to him, was clutching a pillow in his lap and waiting for a specific part to show up. As they reach the scene where Pinocchio is in line with the other unwanted fairytale creatures, Finn speaks up. “Y’know, you kind of look like him.”
At the sound of Finn's voice, Kurt yelps in shock. Realizing what Finn just said, putting his initial shock aside, Kurt looks at him in mock pain and puts a hand against his chest as if saying, ‘you did not just say that to me!’
“You are so lucky my tea didn’t just spill everywhere.” With that, he puts the mug down and gets more comfortable on the couch, crossing his arms and legs and settling in. “Also, I do not look like Pinocchio. If I'm Pinocchio then you’re, like, the Big Bad Wolf.”
It’s Finn's turn to be shocked. “What?!”
“Especially in that granny dress he wears, it reminds me of your Gaga dress.”
Kurt smiles fondly at the memory, looking up at Finn who is mirroring the same expression, all shock suddenly gone from his face. “Hey, at least I'm a wolf. You're the little puppet boy, which is strangely, oddly accurate …”
Kurt puts up his pointer finger in front of Finn's face. “I’m not going to let you finish that sentence.”
Finn laughs and they return to their comfortable silence just watching the movie, now both laughing at Donkey rambling about something on the screen.
Finn, naturally, puts both his arms around the back of the couch, now also getting comfortable. The terms between the two have been a little rocky the past few weeks, if not the past year, but it seems like they reached the end of their troubles and have begun to appreciate each other in every aspect. Maybe it's the effect of their parents officially getting married a few hours ago that changed their points of views, or maybe the other fact that they are officially step brothers and will be living with each other soon.
Kurt, taking a moment away from the movie to think about the night that they just had, considers the consequences of resting his head against Finn's shoulder that is now in an oddly perfect position for doing so. His tiredness has returned, now that they’ve both calmed down and he’s in really comfortable clothes, a sentiment he’d never tell Finn, and he decides easily to rest his head against Finn's shoulder.
Finn, who was engrossed in Donkey and Shrek's current argument about if Donkey could stay the night with Shrek, didn’t notice Kurt's movement until he pulled away from the screen to look over at him.
Kurt looked and felt very peaceful against his shoulder, and although Finn couldn’t see Kurt's face over his now slightly tussled up hair, he had a feeling Kurt was smiling.
All of the tension from the past few weeks seemed to leave Kurt's particularly tense body as he rested against Finn, finally having a moment of peace and silence away from the rest of the world. Kurt felt as if this was where he belonged, at home watching a movie with his brother and his perfectly warm tea.
Finally, the Big Bad Wolf appeared on the screen and said his iconic “Whaaat?” line to Shrek as he is found sleeping in his bed. The two laugh right after, as if it was the funniest thing they had ever watched. Kurt, through giggles, looks up at Finn. “That is exactly how you talk, Finn!"
Finn makes an attempt to make Kurt laugh more. It was a sound Finn never wanted to hear stop, and a sound that he hadn’t heard in too long.
“Do I really?”
“Yes, you could totally be his live-action actor. It’s almost like I can vision it already: you, in your shockingly wonderfully made Gaga red dress, lying in Shrek's bed—”
Finn takes his hand resting behind Kurt and ruffles his younger brother’s hair. Kurt’s speech is cut off and he squawks at the contact, leaning away from Finn and whacking his hand away from his hair.
Kurt manages to get Finn to stop, and his hair is once again adorably tossed up in an unseen fashion. Finn mentally notes that this Kurt was one that was reserved for him only, moments like this at night watching a movie while their parents are off doing whatever. He takes a mental snapshot of his brother not in his perfectly dressed and taken care of state; cheeks flushed, hair messed up, looking at him like he just killed his puppy, and in his big brothers’ clothes.
“Sorry, I had to get you to stop imagining me in that dress anymore somehow.”
Finn pauses for a second, deciding if he should keep talking. Kurt began to slightly smile, but he was trying to hide it simultaneously while trying to look angry at Finn. For some reason, every time tonight Kurt tried to be angry with Finn, it just never worked. Finn takes Kurt’s smile as a segue to continue. “Did I ever tell you I got my mom to help me make the dress? She’s the one who had the shower curtain in the first place, it was in our basement from a few years ago. Thinking about it, I'm shocked you didn’t see it last year and take it from us when you came over.”
Finn laughs at Kurt's wide-eyed face, remembering that day. Kurt, now embarrassed, blurts out, “Finn, I am truly so sorry about that, uh, time period. I had no idea what I was doing, and I need you to know that whatever that was, it’s all over with now. I promise.”
Finn waves a dismissive hand casually. But, he makes sure Kurt is looking at him before he replies to ensure that Kurt hears him. “Dude, seriously, it doesn’t matter to me anymore. I did what I did tonight at the wedding for you, all of our past aside.”
Kurt’s eyes return to their normal size, and he forms a small smile, breaking the eye contact to look into his lap, before looking back up again. “Thank you for that again, what you did today was really nice. No one’s ever done something like that for me.”
Kurt looks at Finn the most genuinely he has tonight, and on the inside, Finn's heart aches at the thought of no one doing something like that, or saying things like that, to Kurt ever before.
Finn stretches his arms out, fully facing Kurt, taking his chances at a hug. Kurt smiles again, this time bigger, and accepts. Kurt wraps his arms around his brother for the second time that night, Finn doing the same, and rests his head on Finn’s shoulder. Finn comfortingly rubs a hand up and down on Kurt’s back, hoping to relay the message to Kurt again that, “From now on, no matter what it costs me, I got your back.”
The two stay in that position for a few minutes without words, letting the sound of the movie play behind them. Finn, who has absentmindedly remained rubbing his hand on Kurt’s back and looking over him to sort-of watch the movie at the same time, realizes that he hasn’t actually felt or heard Kurt move since they got in this position. He shrugs his shoulders in an attempt to shift Kurt.
“Uh, dude? You okay?”
No response.
Kurt has fallen asleep on Finn’s shoulder, essentially fully leaning against Finn in their strange couch-hug position, and Finn has not a clue on what to do now. Finn takes into account how tired Kurt really must have been when they got home, and checks the clock above the TV. 11:55pm, about an hour and a half since they arrived home.
Kurt had apparently felt Finn stop rubbing his back and felt his little shuffles, and slowly raised his head, eyes sleepily looking around and hair still messed up. He keeps his arms sort of around Finn, only lightly releasing his grip. Finn looks at him.
“Did… Did I fall asleep?” Slowly regaining his consciousness, he starts to worry. “Oh gosh, I am so sorry, I guess I was just super tired-”
Finn cuts him off with a slight smile, and removes his grip around Kurt. Kurt does the same, sort of embarrassed now. He moves his hands around himself, almost giving himself a hug, and tucks his legs under his body. Finn returns the arm closest to Kurt to lay across the back of the couch, just in case Kurt ever wanted to come back, and leaves the other arm comfortably in his lap.
“Don’t worry about it, little brother. It was only for, like, five minutes. And this part of the movie is the most boring, anyways. No one cares about Lord Farquaad. … Did you want to go to sleep, though? We can stop here if you’re too tired to continue,” Finn regards. The “little brother” comment seemed to come out naturally for him, and he mentally pumped his fist as he knew he just found a forever nickname for Kurt; a nickname reserved by Finn only.
Kurt only looked at him, expression unreadable. He turns his head to look at the TV, seeing Donkey spouting out something random, and chuckles a little. He looks back over at Finn, who was staring at him waiting for an answer.
“No, I think I’ll be okay to finish the movie. Surprisingly, Shrek is much better when you aren’t watching it alone at ten years old. Good pick, Finn.” The tension Kurt felt in his body lessened as he saw Finn smile at that last comment. “Also, ‘little brother?’ That’s the best you could come up with? Wait, are you even older than me? Either way, I should get a cool nickname, like, uh … –”
“Nope. You’re stuck with that forever. Also, little brother, your hair is super messed up.”
Kurt gasps at the realization, throwing his hands up to feel the mess that was his hair, and begins to fix it in his well-practiced Kurt fashion. Finn simply smirks as he watches. Right when Kurt’s decided it’s fixed enough, Finn throws out the hand closest to Kurt and ruffles it up again. Kurt, now fully awake, screeches at Finn.
“You did not just do that!”
Finn starts laughing at loud at Kurt’s reaction, and covers his mouth while trying not to get Kurt too upset with him. Kurt, for the second time in the past two hours, lunges over Finn and tackles him to the other end of the couch. Meanwhile, Ogre Fiona and Donkey are having a meaningful conversation to the brothers’ right. Neither of them care about the movie at this point, particularly Kurt who has found another reason to attack Finn, and he is focusing solely on trying to push his big brother off the couch.
Kurt, somehow, has the upperhand; Finn’s original shock set him a few steps behind. Kurt is using as much force as he can to get Finn off of the couch as some sort of brotherly revenge for the hair incident, but Finn is managing to resist. Through the shoving, Finn manages to make out, “You deserve this! Get off the couch!” and, “Stop trying to watch Shrek, Finn, there are more important matters at hand!”
The sound of a car door slam and a key turning alert the two immediately. They both freeze as the front door opens, and their unknowing parents begin to walk towards the living room. Finn and Kurt share a look, and immediately pull themselves off of each other. Burt, hearing the light sounds of Shrek playing from the living room, stops at the entryway and takes in the sight before him.
Finn and Kurt have managed to get to either side of the couch, each of them sitting strangely tense, staring intensely at the TV screen. There are three couch pillows scattered across the living room floor, and an almost untouched bag of popcorn on the other side of Finn. Burt’s squinted, skeptical eyes look over to his son, who looks unnaturally disheveled, and Kurt looks back.
“Heyyy, Dad! How was your night?”
Burt just squints at him, “It was good, Carol and I just went out for some dinner and post-wedding alone time.” Carol shows up behind him, stopping right next to Burt and looking at the scene. She also grows skeptical. Burt continues, “How was your night? You have that look, the one where your eyes get really wide and you won’t stop smiling for some reason.”
Kurt looks over to Finn, both growing flushed at almost being caught having a war with each other. Kurt does the talking, though, as he knows Finn would say something wrong.
“Good, good, y’know, just watching Shrek! Finn’s choice!” At the mention of his name, Finn finally looks over to his mother and Burt and smiles tensely, giving a thumbs up. Kurt continues to talk for them, “We’re gonna finish the movie and go to bed, no need to worry about us. Have a good night, guys!”
Kurt has never been more thankful for his intense acting training through childhood musical theater programs. Their parents share a look, and Burt silently notices Kurt’s new outfit, looking between his sons. He chooses to not acknowledge it now, let them do whatever it is that step-brothers do; Burt and Carol give their good night's and head upstairs together.
Finn, who had been catching up on the movie during the conversation, suddenly plops himself back next to Kurt, who had just taken another sip of his slightly-less-warm tea. Kurt was trying to calm himself after lying to his father and step-mother, and Finn was no help.
“This part is extremely depressing, little bro, you have to watch.” Finn taps Kurt’s shoulder twice to try and get his attention on the screen, and Kurt silently obeys. They both lean towards the screen.
Shrek just overheard Ogre Fiona venting to Donkey about how she thinks she looks ugly as an ogre and no one will ever love her, however, Shrek mistook them for talking about him. Kurt puts one hand over his heart and frowns at the screen. He starts talking without taking his eyes off of Shrek.
“Finn, if Shrek makes me cry, the therapy payment that I will need is all on you and it’s all your fault.”
Finn just snickers at him in amusement, and tosses his right arm around Kurt, hand finding itself on Kurt’s arm, letting him rest against his shoulder. Kurt immediately responds and leans into the touch, letting himself get comfortable.
Finn looks to the other side of the couch and finds a fluffy black blanket laying across the back and picks it up to lay over the two of them. He checks the clock again, as he has started to become tired. 1:27am. Finn leans his head against the top of Kurt’s hair and his grip on his arm tightens reassuringly, for no real reason other than to remind his brother he’s right here.
He feels Kurt’s breathing even out and his body becoming still underneath him, and Finn stays right where he is. Finn manages to stick it out through the last fifteen minutes of the movie, wanting to finish for his own enjoyment, and his eyes finally shut as the credits begin to roll.
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2:15am
Burt and Carole were yet to fall asleep, both talking to each other in Carole’s room of the Hudson household. Since they got back home, they heard occasional shifts from the living room, whether it was Shrek’s volume increasing or their kids. Either way, the noises eventually decreased and a silence fell through the house. The two newlyweds shared the all-knowing parent look, and agreed to go check on their boys.
As they arrived in the living room, they noted the silence, and carefully creeped over to get a better look from the living room entryway. Carole let out an audible “awe…” at the sight, quickly covering her mouth. Burt just smiled, looking at the scene.
Their sons were curled up together on the couch. Finn was laying across with his legs stretching out over the cushions, and Kurt tucked into Finn’s right, legs sprawled out over Finn’s. His arm rested over Finn’s chest, lightly and sleepily clutching some of Finn’s shirt on his side. Finn had his left hand behind his head, and his right over Kurt’s back. The black blanket they once shared was now half on the couch and half on the floor.
Kurt looked the most at peace he’s looked in his entire life, immediately making Burt grow infinitely fond of Finn, somehow more than he had at the wedding. The fact that someone could make Kurt feel so safe and comforted and always be there to be a brother for Kurt was something neither Burt nor Kurt knew that he needed, but Burt knew Finn was perfect for the job. Burt officially noticed that Kurt was in clothes that were not his own, Finn’s clothes, and his sweetly pink cheeks and messed up hair. Burt’s face is a mix of shock and admiration, and he rests his hands on his hips and simply looks at the two, mouth slightly agape.
Carole was equally fond of the two, noting Finn’s peaceful face as he slept, and the arm over Kurt’s back. She took out her phone and started taking photos from every angle possible. In the process, she carefully took their falling blanket and wrapped it back over them.
Once they decided that they were finished gushing over their children, they headed back upstairs to get some well needed rest.
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The sun began to rise the next morning, and Carole had already woken up to prepare breakfast for her sons who were in the next room over. The sound of clinking pots and pans, sizzling, and various chirping birds from the morning eventually woke up Kurt.
He slowly raised his head, reaching his hands over his eyes to rub away the tiredness, and remembered where he was. Looking up, he sees that Finn has begun to stir, as well. Neither of them make any attempt to move from their position, as it is extremely comfortable. The brothers share sleepy smiles and both shut their eyes for a second longer, wishing the moment would never end, before Carole came into the living room carrying two plates, smiling widely at the two who hadn’t moved since last night.
“Are you boys awake enough for breakfast?”
Finn gives Kurt a look, as in hell yes, and Kurt shakes his head and smiles at his brother. He slowly peels himself off of him, while Finn straightens himself out on the couch, and they move to the kitchen table together.
They eat in a comfortable silence, with Burt coming down after a few minutes to join them, and the new family can feel how right this all feels. Finn swallows down a piece of bacon, and looks over to Kurt.
“Your hair is still super messed up, by the way.”
Kurt ruthlessly kicks Finn’s under the table as his last piece of revenge. Finn simply smiles and continues eating his bacon, choosing to not remind Kurt of his unfinished cold tea on the couch end table.