As it turned out, the tea party did not happen for another two weeks, much to little Kurt's disappointment. He had been so excited to have another boy who liked tea parties come over and play, but when he and his mother went to the park, Blaine hadn't made an appearance. Nor did he come the next day. Kurt eventually decides that Blaine must have been in trouble for something because the only time Kurt doesn't get to go out and play is when he's in trouble for something.

But that doesn't stop him from missing his new friend, no, not at all. He makes his mommy drag him to the park everyday in hopes of seeing Blaine.

He never shows and Kurt goes home with a sad look on his face.

Finally, after two long weeks, Kurt sees Blaine sitting on the swings.

He looks different.

"You got new clothes!" Kurt exclaims when he approaches his friend.

Blaine grins happily and immediately hops off the swing when he sees Kurt.

"My grandma came to visit," Blaine chatters. "She comes over sometimes and she always gets me new clothes and toys and things. Lookit, I got new shoes!" He kicks his short little leg up.

"I like them a lot," Kurt says with a smile. "You look real smart."

Blaine tilts his curly head to the side in confusion. "Smart? Like smart, smart?"

Kurt shrugs. "I dunno. I heard it on the TV one time. I think it means you look real nice."

"Oh!" Blaine giggles and Kurt smiles because he's not sure if he's ever heard Blaine laugh like that.

Blaine has a nice laugh.

Kurt holds out his hand. Blaine takes it immediately.

"So are we gonna go have the tea party?" Blaine asks. "I wanted to come and play but my grandma said I had to stay home while she was there. But she went home yesterday so I came here."

"I'm happy you came," Kurt admits. "I was sad without you."

"I get sad without you too," Blaine tells him.

Kurt squeezes Blaine's fingers. He likes that Blaine gets sad when Kurt's not around. He's never had a friend who did that.

"Well we don't have to be sad anymore because we're here. And my mommy's waiting to take us to go play," Kurt says, pointing over to where his mommy is talking with another mom.

"Okay."

So they walk, hand in hand over to Kurt's mommy. She turns and smiles at them.

"So this is Blaine?" his mommy asks.

"Yeah this is Blaine," Kurt nods. "He wasn't at the park before because his grandma came to visit."

"That's completely understandable," she smiles. "Let's go then. Your daddy made you both some sandwiches."

"Is he cutting them in triangle shapes?" Kurt has to make sure because Kurt thinks the square shapes aren't nearly as good as the triangle shapes.

"Doesn't he always?" his mommy says, leading them away from the park.

They follow Kurt's mommy out of the park, down the street, and over just a couple of blocks to their house. When Kurt's mommy fills up his teapot with water and his daddy brings out a plate of sandwiches, Blaine stays silent and keeps his little head tilted down until they go back inside.

"Your mom and dad are super nice," Blaine comments as Kurt reaches for a sandwich triangle.

"Yeah, they're nice most times. Unless I get in trouble, you know."

"I don't think any moms or dads are nice when you get in trouble."

Kurt shakes his head and bites into his sandwich. He sees that Blaine is simply staring at the plate of sandwiches, licking at his little lips, but he doesn't make a move to take one. But Kurt simply thinks he's been taught manners because his mommy taught him manners and manners said you don't take things until someone says you can.

"You can have some," Kurt says politely. "They're for both of us. And you look hungry."

"R-really?" Blaine asks, hope alight in his big, round eyes.

"Really, really."

"Thanks," Blaine says and yeah, Kurt thinks, Blaine's been taught manners.

Blaine takes one of the sandwiches and chews on it slowly.

He doesn't tell Kurt that he hasn't eaten since yesterday, since before his grandma left.

"So who do you wanna be for the tea party?" Kurt asks his friend. "Do you still wanna be prince Eric?"

"What if we both be princesses?" Blaine wonders. "And we can tell each other all about our princes and our evil stepmothers and stuff."

"Yeah!" Kurt nods happily, dusting crumbs off his fingers. "Stay here, I have princess crowns!"

Kurt rushes inside to his room. He opens a pretty chest and pulls out his two favorite tiaras. He'll let Blaine wear his favorite one, he decides, because that's what friends do, right? They share their favorite things. He runs back outside and hands a tiara to Blaine.

Kurt doesn't notice, but Blaine has wrapped one of the sandwich triangles in a small napkin and stuffed it in his pocket for later when he was at home.

They have a tea party for over an hour, Kurt pretending to be Cinderella and Blaine pretending to be Ariel. They share tea (which is really water, but they can pretend just as well as anyone else can) and little cookies and wear their tiaras proudly on their heads. They even sing songs from the Little Mermaid and jump around the yard, acting scenes out and giggling and squealing the way only happy children can.

Eventually, Blaine needs to go home.

"My daddy or mommy can drive you," Kurt says. "So you don't have to walk so far. And you might get lost since you've never been here before."

Blaine looks up at the setting sun, glancing around and Kurt thinks he's realizing that no, he really doesn't know where he is and he really could get lost.

"It's okay," Kurt says when Blaine starts to look kind of scared. "We can take you home."

Blaine's little chest shudders with a nervous breath but he nods anyway. Kurt runs inside and tells his parents that Blaine needs to go home but he doesn't want to walk because he could get very, very lost and Kurt would rather his new friend not get lost at all. So Kurt's mommy gets her keys and she, Kurt, and Blaine pile into her car. Blaine squeaks out his address when she asks for it and Kurt notices her frown.

"That's very far away," she comments. "You walk to the park every day?"

"Y-yeah," Blaine tells her. "It's not too far. My dad works lots and so does my mom. So they can't drive me places."

"Hm."

That's all she says and Kurt sees Blaine breathe a little sigh of relief when she doesn't ask him anymore questions. The drive isn't so very long, Kurt thinks, but they pass through two other neighborhoods before they get to Blaine's house. The house is small, Kurt thinks, but his daddy always told him that good things come in small packages and Kurt decides that that must be true because Blaine is very small, even though they figured out they were the same age, and Blaine is his real good friend.

"Blaine, honey," Kurt's mommy says, pulling out a piece of paper and a pen from her purse. She scribbles something on the paper and hands it to him. "This is our telephone number. If you ever need me or Kurt's dad to come get you and take you somewhere, even if it's just to the park, you can call and we'll come pick you up."

Blaine goes absolutely speechless, but he takes the paper anyway.

"So you don't have to walk from far away," Kurt concludes. "We can see each other lots more."

Blaine nods his curly little head and unbuckles his seat belt. "Th-thank you."

Kurt's mommy smiles at him as he opens the car door.

"Will we get to play tomorrow?" Kurt asks his friend.

"I hope so," Blaine says. "School's gonna start soon. And we won't get to see each other at the park every day."

"But we'll go to the same school, right?" Kurt asks, panicking a little bit. "You'll come to school?"

Blaine's eyes grow sad and she shakes his head. "My mom and dad do home school."

"But you said your mommy and daddy work lots," Kurt points out. "How can they teach you school if they're at work?"

"It's just the way we always do it," Blaine shrugs. He looks up to see the sun has nearly set. "I – I gotta go, my dad's gonna be home soon. I'll try and see you tomorrow."

"Oh, okay," Kurt says dejectedly. He holds out his hand from where he sits in the car.

Blaine gives a tiny, tiny smile and leans back in to squeeze Kurt's fingers. "Bye, Kurt."

"Bye, Blaine."

Blaine pulls his hand away and shuts the car door. Kurt watches him race up to his house and disappear inside.

"Blaine likes to hold hands," Kurt explains when they're on their way home. He stares out the window.

"I've noticed," his mommy says. "Do you like holding hands with Blaine?"

Kurt nods, resting his forehead against the window. "Yeah. I like holding hands with him. I don't think lots of people hold his hand."

"That's very sad."

"I think so too," Kurt states with all the knowledge a seven year old has to offer. "I think everyone should have someone to hold hands with. And our hands fit real good together."

From Kurt's spot in the back seat, he doesn't see the small smile on his mommy's face and the single tear in his mommy's eye. She nods.

With the telephone number, their routines change slightly. Blaine always calls Kurt just after lunch time and he and his mommy always go pick Blaine up just after lunch time. They play at the park sometimes, but most of the time they play in Kurt's front yard and have tea parties and play pretend and have sing alongs. Kurt notices that Blaine stops wearing his old clothes, the ones that were too big or too small, and he always wears his shoes. He's happy for Blaine because he thinks everyone should have clothes that fit.

However, all good things come to an end. Summer ends and school starts.

"Did you have a good first day at school?" Blaine asks him when they're sitting on their swings at the playground.

"It was okay," little Kurt says with a shrug.

"I thought you liked school," Blaine says. "You said you did."

"I like learning stuff," Kurt nods. "But I don't have friends like you at school."

"What do you mean friends like me?"

"Good friends. Friends that don't make fun of me," Kurt explains.

"Why do they make fun of you?" Blaine wonders.

"I think it's 'cause…I'm different," Kurt admits. "Because I don't like the kinds of stuff other boys like. They say I like girl stuff. Like tea parties."

"Tea parties are girl stuff?" Blaine asks.

"I guess."

"Well I like tea parties too," Blaine says. "I love our tea parties. They're lots of fun. So…we can be different together."

"Yeah?" Kurt speaks hopefully.

"Yeah," Blaine says with a small smile.

Kurt smiles too and they begin to swing slowly, hands locked between them. Kurt is very glad to know that Blaine doesn't mind being different. There's nothing worse than feeling all alone in the world. He's happy to not be alone anymore.

"What about you?" Kurt questions. "How was home school?"

"Boring," Blaine tells him. "I just do workbooks all day."

Kurt scrunches up his nose. "That doesn't sound like fun at all."

"It's not. I like to read lots. But I don't like workbooks."

"I like to read too!" Kurt exclaims. "What do you like to read?"

"All sorts of things," Blaine says excitedly as their swings come to a halt. "I don't have a lot of books though. But I read them over and over and over."

"You should go to the library! The library has lots of books. My mommy takes me there sometimes. You should come with us next time. We spend all day in the library."

"But you're at school all day," Blaine points out.

"We can go on the weekends," Kurt says. "We can go and we can read and you can tell me what you learned in your workbooks and I can tell you what I learned in school and we can be like…like teachers! We can play school!"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah! It'll be fun!"

Blaine's smile is huge and for some reason, when Blaine smiles that big, Kurt realizes he can't help but smile either.

And this becomes their lives. Blaine stays at home, doing his workbooks. Kurt goes to school everyday. But after school they play together and they natter away about what they learned. They play house and they play school and they play the mommies and daddies, they play brothers, they play teachers and students and Kurt teaches Blaine how to tell time on a regular clock.

"Can't we be two dads?" Blaine asks one day when Kurt settles a teddy bear in one of the seats at his little table. "We always have a mom and a dad, but can't we be two dads instead?"

Kurt stops to think because he's never seen two daddies before. He's only ever seen a mommy and a daddy and there are some kids who only have a mommy and there's a boy in his class who only has a daddy.

"Does that happen in real life?" Kurt wonders.

"Dunno," Blaine says.

"Hm. Well, my daddy said that when two people love each other they get married. 'Cause being married is like, the best way to say 'I love you'."

"A dad and a dad can love each other, right?" Blaine tries to make sense of their dilemma. "They can say 'I love you'."

"I think so," Kurt says. "Don't see why not. I don't think they can have babies though."

"…Why not?"

Kurt's little eyebrows shoot up and he decides that, yes, it would only be proper if Blaine knew where babies came from too. So he explains everything his mommy and daddy had told him and when he's done, Blaine has a disgusted look on his face.

"Gross!"

"That's what I said!"

"I don't think I'd like to do that."

"Me neither," Kurt nods decisively. "But if the mommy carries the baby in her tummy, then daddies can't have babies together."

Blaine furrows his dark little brows. "What if they borrow someone else's mommy?"

"Hm. And she could carry the baby and give it to the daddies when it's big enough?"

"Yeah, like that."

"That sounds like a good plan," Kurt nods. "So our baby," he gestures to the teddy bear, "came from a mommy's belly but we take care of him."

"Yeah! And we can be the daddies!"

Despite Blaine not learning as much as he did in school, Kurt thought Blaine was very wise. He always had good ideas.

On most weekends, Kurt's mommy would take Kurt and Blaine to the library for the entirety of Saturday morning. They'd sit at a little table and read each other stories and paragraphs from their favorite books. Kurt had to help Blaine with some of the big words but Kurt never-not-once thought that Blaine was dumb. He just didn't think that Blaine's workbooks helped him read better and Kurt was very happy to help.

Some Saturdays Kurt's mommy would take them for lunch or she would take them on a picnic.

And that's how they were, Kurt and Blaine. They liked to play pretend and they liked to read and they liked to teach each other. They liked to giggle and draw their very own conclusions when they ran into a problem. They liked holding hands and they had fun together. Kurt's parents never asked about Blaine's home life, they simply picked him up whenever he called. They always made sure he had food in his belly when they dropped him off at home. They cared for him just as they cared for their own son.

The months sped by.

One day in November, Kurt and Blaine were on the playground, sitting at the end of the slide, hip to tiny hip. It was very, very cold and Blaine's jacket wasn't very warm at all. Kurt doesn't see his daddy looking over at the two boys, concern heavy in his features.

"You look real cold," Kurt said, noting his friend's red nose and chattering teeth.

Blaine nodded shakily. "Y-yeah."

"Don't you have a bigger jacket?" Kurt asks. "One for when it's cold enough to snow?"

"No," Blaine shivers. "This is the only jacket I have."

Kurt's little mouth turned down. "I can give you one of mine," Kurt offers. "I've got lots. You can have one. I'll give it to you tomorrow."

"Th-that's okay," Blaine says, sliding his freezing hands around his middle.

"You're my best friend," Kurt tells him. "I can give you stuff if I want to."

Blaine's head turns sharply, staring at Kurt with wide, glassy eyes. "I'm your best friend?"

"Well, yeah," Kurt says, as though it should be obvious. He could have sworn he'd told Blaine that before. "I never told you that you're my best friend?"

"No," Blaine whispers.

"Well you are."

Blaine's breathing seems to hitch and then he smiles into the chilly November air. "You're my best friend too, Kurt."

"Best of friends," Kurt nods. "So…since we're best friends…and you're real cold…"

"What?" Blaine asks, teeth still chattering.

"Well, when I get real cold, my mommy holds me. Or my daddy holds me. It makes me warm up real fast. So I can hold you. If you want," Kurt rushes to say because he knows that Blaine's never been into a lot of physical contact besides hand holding. He doesn't want to scare him. "But I don't have to if you don't want to."

"N-no, it's…it's okay," Blaine breathes softly. "You can hold me if you want."

Kurt smiles because well, if he's honest with himself, he's been wanting to hug Blaine for a while, especially when Blaine has particularly sad eyes. His mommy hugs him when he's sad and when she does, he feels much calmer, safer, and a bit happier. He just wants Blaine to be happy too.

Because Blaine's his very best friend. And that's what best friends do.

So he reaches his tiny arm around Blaine's shivering shoulders and pulls him closer until Blaine's curly head is resting on his shoulder. He holds onto his friend tight as he slips his other hand around Blaine's freezing fingers.

"It's lots warmer," Blaine whispers. "Thank you."

"You're my best friend," Kurt says simply, leaning his head on Blaine's. "Best friends take care of each other."

"I hope you're my best friend forever," Blaine says.

Kurt nods against Blaine's dark mop of hair and begins to swing his feet.

From the edge of the playground, his daddy looks on with curiosity. Later in the car, after they dropped Blaine off at home, Kurt tells his daddy that he's giving Blaine one of his big coats tomorrow.

"Does Blaine not have his own coat?" his daddy wonders.

"Not a big one for when it's cold enough to snow. Like today, it was super cold. So I held him close," Kurt explained. "Like how you always hold me when it's cold because it makes me warm."

"I saw," Kurt's daddy says. "That was very nice of you."

"He's my best friend," Kurt nods because if he didn't tell Blaine before that he was his best friend, other people might not know either. And Kurt wanted everyone to know who his best friend was. Blaine was one of the nicest people he knew. "Best friends are nice to each other."

And best friends care for each other and make sure they stay warm, make sure they're happy. That was simply the proper thing to do in Kurt's eyes.