Chapter Ten

Kurt pulled at the inflatable pool, tugging it toward the center of the shared yard behind the row of houses. He brushed his bangs out of his face, watching as Blaine yanked at the hose toward him, flashing him a smile.

“When did May get this hot?” Kurt asked, huffing slightly.

Blaine shrugged. “It’s almost June,” he reasoned, but Kurt merely grimaced.

“Stupid global warming...” Kurt murmured. “It’s below zero in the winter, and in the nineties come May. It’s ridiculous.” He paused. “Jesus, I sound old.”

Blaine grinned. “Thirty,” he said. “You are really old.”

“Just wait a few months until you catch up with me,” Kurt said teasingly.

“Mmm, never,” Blaine responded over his shoulder, moving back to turn on the hose. “I’ll find a way to stop aging before then.”

Kurt quirked a brow. “And not let me benefit from that? I don’t think we can be friends anymore.”

“Well, maybe if you ask nicely,” Blaine said with a wink, returning to the other man as the water flowed from the hose, filling the pool.

Kurt sighed. “You think Ella will share?” he asked.

Blaine laughed. “Ella share?” he inquired. “Are we talking about the same kid?”

“Well, I’m sure that she would share with Aiden, if my dad and Finn hadn’t taken him to that baseball game...”

“I was half-worried he didn’t want to come because of me,” Blaine admitted.

“He’s better about that,” Kurt assured him. “I’m sure it’ll take him a little time to warm up again, but he’s fine.”

Blaine nodded. “So what team are they going to see?” he asked conversationally.

“Ohio,” Kurt responded, leaning over the pool to adjust the hose slightly.

“I figured,” Blaine laughed. “Which one?”

Kurt straightened, frowning. “What do you mean ‘which one’?” he asked. “There’s more than one?”

Blaine chuckled. “Don’t worry about it,” he told Kurt. “But next time, definitely bring Aiden. I’m sure Ella will love playing Little Mermaid with him.”

Kurt smiled softly. “How’s her voice? Is six too young to be asking that?”

“She definitely has a voice,” Blaine commented. “For a kid, anyway. When she gets older, I want to get her voice lessons. I’ll just have to find the right teacher.”

“Blaine, you’re a music teacher, now,” Kurt said. “Why not teach her yourself?”

Blaine scoffed. “Middle and high school music classes aren’t exactly any standard.”

“So... you want to give your niece a Rachel Berry complex?” Kurt asked with raised eyebrows.

Blaine paused. “You’re right. Maybe I should teach her...”

Kurt shrugged. “You could always have Rachel do it,” he offered. “Assuming Ella wants to go in that direction. Who knows? Maybe in a few years she won’t care about singing like Ariel and will want to do something completely different.”

“Probably,” Blaine sighed, moving back to turn off the hose. “I spent a good portion of my childhood wanting to grow up to be a dinosaur.”

Kurt looked at him thoughtfully. “I really have no response to that,” he said. “Though it does explain some of the expressions you used to make during glee performances.” Blaine pulled a face. “Ah, there’s one. It’s a bit reminiscent of ‘Raise Your Glass’ with the Warblers...”

“I’ve nearly had it with your mocking, sir,” Blaine told him seriously.

“Are you trying to impersonate Thad now?” Kurt asked, grinning.

“I can go and get the hose, and then you’ll be sorry.”

“I’m terrified, actually,” Kurt told him.

“Well then, I hope whatever you’re wearing today won’t get ruined, because you had this coming,” Blaine responded, and Kurt backed away slightly.

“Did we somehow go from joking to serious?” he asked, a little cautiously. “Because in all seriousness, I would prefer to stay dry.”

“What happened to hoping that Ella would share?” Blaine asked, and Kurt merely shook his head, taking another step back. However, in doing so, he slid slightly on part of the rubber of the pool, falling backwards. Yet he still managed to take a firm hold of the other man’s wrist pulling him into the water as well.

“I should have seen that coming,” Blaine laughed, Kurt spluttering and spitting out water. “Oh god, you look like a drowned rat.”

“Cat is more like it,” Kurt said, still choking slightly. “And I’ll unleash my claws unless you get off me right now and let me get out of the water.”

Blaine obliged, rolling off of him and scrambling to his feet, offering Kurt a hand to pull him up. “Would you like a change of clothes?” Blaine offered, still snickering, and Kurt sighed.

“Please,” he said, and Blaine led him into the house, and up into the bedroom. He rifled through his drawers for a few moments before handing Kurt some clean, dry clothing, and the man took them graciously, moving to get changed in the bathroom. The moment he finished, he reentered the bedroom, pausing slightly as he did.

Blaine was struggling slightly with his shirt, pulling it over his head. Kurt’s eyes traveled over his body, admiring the slight changes since high school. He swallowed hard as Blaine finally managed to get his head through the hole, pulling his shirt down over his stomach, his curls plastered to his forehead. Smoothing the shirt, he looked back up at Kurt, flashing a smile.

Kurt covered the room in a few quick strides, and instantly grabbed Blaine’s face. The other man instantly returned the kiss, a kiss that was eager and needy and desperate. Kurt’s mind raced as he traced his fingers over Blaine’s stomach, pushing slightly at the hem of his shirt to feel hot, smooth skin that he had glimpsed just moments before. He briefly wondered why he kept telling himself it was so wrong to feel anything right now when it felt so good.

Everything crashed down upon him suddenly, Kurt pulled away roughly. “I can’t,” he panted. “I just... I can’t do this.” He bit his lip. “I should go.” He glanced to Blaine, who seemed to be clenching his jaw slightly.

“You can’t keep doing this to me, Kurt,” he snapped, and Kurt was taken aback. “I understand that you’re hurting, and I understand that you wanted to wait, to hold off on anything else until you had more time to heal, but are you serious right now? Because this is the second time you’ve kissed me without any real intent of following any of it through, even just to talk about it.”

“You said yourself that I’m trying to heal—”

“Then why are you fucking around?” Blaine asked heatedly, and Kurt snapped his mouth shut. “I get that I was kind of a jerk when we first met, and I unintentionally played with your feelings, but that was fifteen years ago, Kurt. We’re twice as old now, we should be better than this, no matter what the reason is. You can’t just convince yourself that what I feel doesn’t matter, or that I don’t feel anything at all, just because whatever you’re feeling is confusing. Just—Jesus Christ—just talk to me about it instead of doing—doing that.”

“This is why I didn’t want to have anything to do with you anymore,” Kurt said vehemently. “This isn’t easy for me at all, Blaine. I just told you that my son thinks that I’m trying to replace Alex. I just... god, it would be so much easier if you weren’t in my life, right now!”

“Is that what you want?” Blaine shouted. “Because if it is, then you can leave, and you don’t ever have to come back. If you want me out of your life, then I’ll just leave you the fuck alone. For good, this time!”

“Yes, that’s what I want!” Kurt yelled, though his voice cracked, a few tears falling down his cheeks. “Or—dammit, I don’t know. I just... I hate myself for doing this, Blaine. For what I’m doing to you, what I’m doing to Aiden, and to Alex... I can’t forget about him, Blaine, but this...” He let out a wet laugh. “Of course I feel something for you. I’m not doing this to just mess with your head. It just... scares me. I stupidly keep wishing that you weren’t here or you weren’t you just so I don’t even have the chance of feeling something for you. I thought Alex was it, but nothing went as planned and now... now I’m crying in the bedroom of someone I think I’m developing feelings for, and that’s almost more terrifying than anything.”

Blaine’s face had softened dramatically. He reached out slightly to Kurt, about to say something when the door to the bedroom opened, a tiny figure peeking through.

“Uncle Blaine, stop making Kurt cry,” she told him, frowning deeply at the man.

“Sweetheart, no, he didn’t,” Kurt said quickly, but Ella shook her head.

“I heard you two fighting,” she told them, and Blaine ran his hand over his face.

“Ella, I’m so sorry,” he said quickly. “You weren’t supposed to. God... we didn’t mean to scare you—”

“I’m not scared,” she responded. “I just don’t like you two fighting. Uncle Blaine, you can’t be mean to Kurt, because then he won’t know you love him.” She turned to the other man. “Same for you.”

“Ella, he doesn’t—” Blaine started quickly, but Kurt leaned down and hugged the girl.

“Thank you,” he told her. “You’re right, I won’t be mean to your uncle anymore.”

“Good!” she said. “Are you two gonna say you love each other and kiss now, like in my princess movies?”

Kurt glanced at Blaine. “It’s more complicated than that, Ella,” Blaine told her softly, and she frowned.

“Well, I don’t like that too much,” she said matter-of-factly. “When I grow up, it won’t be compul-cated. I’m gonna find a prince and we’ll say ‘I love you’ and kiss and get married. It isn’t hard.” She tilted her head slightly. “Maybe you’re doing it wrong.”

Kurt chuckled softly. “Let’s go outside, and maybe you can explain it better to us,” he offered, and she nodded quickly, taking one of his hands, and one of Blaine’s, tugging them gently to the stairs. Kurt shared a look with Blaine, and he knew they were tacitly agreeing to talk about things later. In the meantime, he silently mouthed an ‘I’m sorry’, and Blaine responded to the gesture with a ‘me too’. After Blaine turned his attention back to Ella, Kurt continued to look at him and wonder.

He wondered if he was making the same wish that things were as easy as in fairy tales.

“I think a good place to start is Cinderella,” Ella told them, nodding. “Now, let’s see... Once, there was this beautiful girl named Cinderella...”