Humming a Broadway tune softly to himself, Kurt Hummel carefully tucked his black tie into his dark grey vest allowing his cyan eyes to do one more sweep of his full ensemble. At twenty-five years old he was one of the most successful up and coming designers in New York City and he knew that he had to continually scrutinise his outfit choices so that he looked the part on a daily basis. Eyeing a hair out of place, the young man frowned, gently sweeping it back up into place and promptly emptying half a can of hairspray onto his head.

Smiling once more, Kurt added his favourite leaf shaped, diamond studded broach to his outfit and speedily left his room to figure out which of his four roommates were awake or asleep and which ones, if any, had actually left the building already.

Dancing lightly through the penthouse that he and his four best friends shared, Kurt beamed at the thought of his first proper fashion show from two days ago, knowing that it had been a great success and everything had gone off without a hitch. Proving once more that Kurt was the one to look out for in the up and coming fashion world and securing him contacts that he had once only dreamed of getting. Glancing to his left he noticed the doorways to Elliott and Sebastian’s rooms were firmly shut still, large do not disturb signs dominating both door frames and he had to roll his eyes, knowing that his manager and the aspiring interior designer respectively were likely to still be tucked up tightly under the warm covers of their comfortable beds for a good few hours yet. Rolling his eyes, Kurt thumped loudly on each door as he passed by, smirking at the groans from within. Moving on with his path to the kitchen, he noted that both Rachel and Dani’s rooms were wide open, usually meaning that Rachel had already left for her rehearsal for the day and hopefully that Dani was in the kitchen waiting for Kurt with the coffee pot running.

Striding into the kitchen, Kurt grinned and mouthed a hello to Dani as she yelled down the phone at someone before noting his favourite miniature housemate.

 “Hi Ally baby,” He laughed softly, kissing the spot of the 10 month olds head that wasn’t currently covered in oatmeal on his way to the coffee pot. Returning to the side of the high chair where the Dani’s chair was evidently set up, he took control of trying to feed Alice the remainder of her oatmeal that wasn’t already on her face or onesie.

Turning his attention back to Dani as she slammed her phone onto the bench using her free hand to pinch the bridge of her nose, he shot a funny face at Alice, chuckling when the baby’s hands flew to her mouth suppressing her giggle slightly before placing the now empty bowl out of her reach and rising from his seat to encircle Dani’s petite waist with his arms. “What’s going on in that head of yours princess?”

Giggling in a way not unlike her daughter, Dani wriggled so that she was facing Kurt and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, burying her face into his neck as he soothingly ran a hand up and down her back. “Why do I have such incompetent fools working for me? Jimmy managed to back up the sink again and is his first call to a plumber? Of course not, it’s straight to me with a speech of not knowing what to do. Idiot.” She sighed softly, pulling away from Kurt’s hold.

Chuckling softly, Kurt stepped back, allowing Dani to wet a washcloth and attempt to rub the worst of the oatmeal from Alice’s face. “Isn’t it Jimmy’s last day today though?” He questioned, filling up his coffee cup once more and starting to wipe down the shiny black benches of their kitchen. “I thought you had someone new starting?”

Wrestling her daughter from the high chair, Dani sighed as oatmeal spattered all over the floor. “Yeah, thankfully Jimmy finishes at twelve and the new guy is set to start at two doing the late shift and close down, so I’m going in to run front of house for a while, I can’t wait.” She laughed, pulling a face before placing a squirming baby on the floor, watching her like a hawk. “I’m actually thinking of closing the second store, it’s not what I wanted at all to be honest. I preferred having just the one coffee shop, it was so intimate and it’s what I wanted, not having to run around like a headless chicken trying to make sure that both places are running smoothly. I like the baking side of things and getting to actually know my regulars. The new guy has loads of new recipes which I’m dying to try out though.” The far away dreamy look on Dani’s face made Kurt smile in fondness at the slightly younger woman, tilting his head to eye her up properly.

Like Kurt himself, Dani had stunning blue eyes that always seemed to shine with some happiness, even in the darkest of situations. Her brunette hair was tinted red and usually pulled up into a loose messy bun or French plaited to keep it away from her face, and prying baby’s hands, as Alice grew older. Slowly since growing pregnant and giving birth to Alice, Kurt had noted that the young woman had started to gain her confidence back, following the traumatic events that eventually led up to Alice’s conception and Dani’s determination to keep her daughter even when the odds, and most people, were fighting against her all of the way.

“Kurt, earth to Kurt,” Dani snapped her fingers in front of Kurt’s face giggling lightly as he snapped out of his train of thoughts. “What were you thinking of?”

“That you’re extraordinarily pretty and that if I was straight you’d be the girl for me,” Kurt smirked, showing all of his pearly whites in a large, toothy grin.

Scoffing, Dani laughed, shoving Kurt slightly. “Yeah right Kurt Hummel you freaking liar. Besides if I remember rightly, one of the only reasons that we wound up meeting was due to your ridiculous crush on my brother.” Beaming as Kurt’s alabaster skin turned steadily scarlet, Dani decided to keep teasing him. “You and Rachel were fine in the flat that you were in, if it hadn’t been for your crush on Ollie, there is no way that you would’ve convinced Rach to move into that first flat share hellhole that we were in, especially not with Seb there.” She continued to laugh as Kurt glared steadily at her.

“I was heartbroken at the time I’ll have you know and there was no way that Rachel and I could’ve kept up the rent on that apartment once our savings ran out anyway. It was the right thing to do in retrospect. Besides I didn’t see Ollie until we were viewing the flat and from how he and Elliott were acting it would’ve been impossible to think that either were gay,” Kurt rolled his eyes at the memory of how he met two of the people who would become two of his closest friends. “Besides, you were the b…” One glance at the cobalt eyes watching him from the floor was enough to stop Kurt mid word as Dani dissolved into giggles once more, Kurt reaching down to scoop the baby onto his lap. “The witch when we first met.”

“I resent that Kurt Hummel! You were just as much of a witch as I was.”

“Alright, alright, we both hated each other for some reason best known to ourselves,” Kurt chuckled, letting Alice play with his fingers as he snuggled her closely to him, planting a kiss to her forehead.

Watching them tenderly, a small smile flittered over Dani’s face as she glanced at the clock that hung above the swinging door entrance to their kitchen before turning her attention back to Kurt and Alice. “Kurt can you dress her and take her to day care today? I just feel like I should really try to get to ‘The Coffee Script’ as soon as I can, in other words before Jimmy can destroy the place. Good luck Starbucks,” She muttered the last part under her breath but Kurt still heard and bent practically double in his laughter once more, setting off Alice’s little baby giggles.

Straightening up, Kurt allowed Alice’s giggles to die once more, offering her one hand as he used the other to clasp Dani’s hand tightly. “We’ve been through this before Dani, she’s my daughter and my responsibility as much as she is yours. I may have resisted and been a witch about the whole thing at first,” he glanced at Alice carefully, resting his head on top of hers soothingly before turning his eyes back on the young woman beside him. “But quite honestly I couldn’t imagine life without her, or you, these days you’re both my best friends as disgustingly clichéd and soppy as that is. She’s the best mistake I’ve ever made, and if anything she truly made me as responsible as I am today. I mean we were both complete messes when we made her, there’s no way either of us can deny that. Had you asked me when Rachel and I first moved in with you and the other guys whether we would have a baby seven years down the line? I would’ve laughed in your face. As far as I was concerned then I was eighteen I’d just broken up with the love of my young life and we hated each other for a start. Looking back, I think it was probably because when you weren’t being a witch you really reminded me of him with your goofy attitude.”

Snorting ungracefully, Dani quickly swiped her free hand over eyes to dry them slightly. “A mess doesn’t quite cover it Kurt, there’s a three or four week gap in my life that I don’t even remember culminating in waking up with my best friend, my gay best friend I might add, naked in bed next to me…and Kurt?” Sighing, she stood and gathered her laptop bag and recipe books from the edge of the counter in the middle of the large room, turning back to face Kurt once more. “You have to get back into the dating game, believe me I know it’s hard with an infant, but even before we had Alice you resisted any nice guys that came along and went straight for the trash who were going to treat you awful,” she smiled sadly before stooping to kiss the baby on her head, “I love you Ally babe,” she whispered softly, peppering a couple more kisses to the infants head before standing and kissing Kurt’s cheek. “ I love you too doofus,” then pausing, she slapped Kurt gently around the back of his head, “But never call our daughter a mistake again, as much as she probably should not be here.”

Laughing as Dani stalked from the room, Kurt lifted Alice so that she was standing in his lap and blew raspberries on her cheek as she giggled gleefully. “Daddy did not always pick the nasty guys just none of the nice guys were interested got that?” Nodding so that Alice would copy him Kurt stuck his tongue out at the baby, “Right baba, let’s get you dressed so Daddy can get to work. Can you say Daddy? Da-ddy.”

“Da, da, da!” Alice squealed, waving her arms around and accidentally hitting Kurt in the nose.

“Well, that’s good enough for me,” Kurt grinned hoisting the baby onto his hip and standing up. “Now, let’s go see what we can dress you in today, and I can guarantee it won’t be one of those yucky animal jumpers that Aunt Rachel bought you.”

Placing Alice carefully in her cream sleigh cot, Kurt pressed a kiss to her forehead as she babbled continuously, brushing the lilac net curtains that surrounded the crib out of the baby’s reach as she used the bars to pull herself unceremoniously to her feet. “Da,” She giggled, hands stretched out for Kurt in a move that melted his heart.

“In a minute baby girl, Daddy needs to pick out some clothes for you,” Passing her her stuffed tiger, he laughed as she giggled and toppled over once more in her crib. “Almost there baby girl, you’ll be flying around here in no time.” Chuckling, Kurt turned to walk back across the softly carpeted floor to the cream wardrobe that stood opposite the crib, smiling slightly at the picture that hung next to it of their dysfunctional household that had been taken just after Alice had first come home from the hospital. Of course the picture was surrounded by little silver stars, the same ones that surrounded the lilac walls of the bedroom, at Rachel’s insistence after having ganged up on Kurt and Elliott with a hormonal Dani who hadn’t really known what she wanted at that point in time.

“You know, Mommy and I really need to stop shopping for you,” Kurt sighed as he pulled open the wardrobe doors, pulling out outfits he’d never seen and that were surely to small for Alice by this point. Pulling out a pale yellow tutu, he scrunched up his nose at the note attached (from Quinn of course, she always tended to stick to yellows and creams for some reason) and turned to look at his daughter once more, “Correction your aunts and uncles need to stop buying things for you.”

“Aha,” Kurt cried, momentarily captivating Alice from where she was chewing on her fist. Retreating from the wardrobe, Kurt pulled out a baby blue cable knit dress, complete with a long sleeved cream body suit underneath, pale blue flowers embroidered on the cuffs and cream tights. “Add a little blue bow to those curls you’ve got going on their doll and we have a beauty of an outfit here.” Kurt grinned, curiosity getting the best of him as he checked the label in the back of the dress, one eyebrow shooting straight into his hairline. “Christian Dior. Baba I’m starting to think you actually have better clothes than me,” he said, scooping her up into his arms once more.

Half an hour later, Kurt was shrugging on his dark grey pea coat and stuffing his gloves in his pockets. Grabbing Alice up from the floor, he managed to fight her into her mink coloured duffle coat, zipping it up and doing up the double buttons for extra protection from the harsh February air, covering her tiny hands with the fluffy cream mittens that hung on strings from the sleeves and managing to battle the cream coloured beanie over her head without dislodging her bow and with some of her brunette curls peeking out from under the bottom before pulling the hood of her coat over her head. Glancing to the baby Uggs that lay by his feet he groaned, throwing his head back before snatching them up, resuming battle with his daughter once more.

“Well Ally pally, I think that we’re finally ready to leave,” he sighed, laughing as she delivered one of his own bitch glares at him, making sure that he knew that she was most definitely his daughter. “Baby girl I invented that look, it doesn’t work on me, try your Uncle Seb, I can guarantee it will petrify him.” Alice in one hand and the brown satchel that doubled as her diaper bag in the other, Kurt pinned a note to Elliott’s door requesting him to meet him at Kurt’s store as soon as he was awake to go over the next big event Kurt would have to attend and then knocked loudly on Sebastian’s door once more for good measure before exiting the apartment.

 “Hobbit! Get up Hobbit!” Santana growled, glaring at the mess of curls sticking out the top of the white sheets, “You’ll be late if you don’t move like now.”

Feeling a soft hand tug on hers, Santana turned her head slightly, smiling at the blonde haired girl frowning in concentration beside her. “Santana is my dolphin dead?”

Pulling Brittany tight against her side Santana pressed a kiss to the girls temple. “No Britt, he’s just being a lazy asshole,” kicking the bed sharply for good measure Santana smirked at the loud groan that emanated from the sheets.

“Would you both bugger off?” Voice muffled with sleep, Blaine tugged one of the pillows over his head, keeping a tight hold on the one that he was snuggling into too.

Santana rolled her eyes and bent down at the end of the bed, a devious grin playing on her lips. “Alright Anderson, but remember that you asked for this.” With one tug she stood back sniggering at the yelp as she clutched the sheets tightly in her grasp leaving Blaine simply in the middle of the Queen sized bed in his batman pyjama bottoms clutching one pillow to his head and wrapped around another. Sighing as the young man simply scrunched up his face burying further into the mattress, Santana pushed Brittany slowly around the left side of the bed, holding a finger to her lips and counting to three with the other hand.

On three, the girls each whipped away one of Blaine’s pillows. “Nuuh, mine,” he whimpered, reaching up blindly before giving up with a disgruntled sigh and trying to burrow into the mattress again.

Gaping in disbelief, Santana threw her hands up in the air and muttered a few choice words in Spanish. “Blaine Anderson, you are a twenty four year old man, it should not be this hard to get you out of bed. You’re starting a new freaking job today,” Sitting on the edge of the bed, Santana sighed softly, running a hand through her hair and placing a hand on the small of Blaine’s back. “Look B, I know it’s been a hard like seven years now, but things are finally looking up. As stupid as it sounds, we all know that you never really got over Kurt, but it’s been seven years. Hell, you graduated McKinley with honours, figured out that baking was the way forward for you and got into a ridiculously good apprenticeship thing in New York, you ditched those good for nothing parents of yours so they can’t bring you down anymore and you finally ditched the shit for brains rebound guy.” Hearing Blaine’s whine of protest, Brittany giggled softly and Santana shot her a look. “No matter what you say Anderson you never loved Greg, he simply filled a Hummel sized hole in your life and treated you like shit, but you need to move on now. Hell knows if Hummel’s even still in the States, but you have me, Britt, Sam and Mike to act as your wingmen and women.”

When Blaine still didn’t move, Santana felt her anger steadily grow once more and she stood up, glancing to Brittany again. “Britt, honey, do you still have the present that Sam got you for Christmas?”

Eyes lighting up, the blonde woman nodded enthusiastically. “Go get it, you can use it to get Blaine out of this room and into a shower. I can still smell the guy he was with last night.”

“But Santana, you said not to use it on people.”

“Call it an exceptional circumstance,” Santana smirked, calling to the girl over her shoulder as she headed out to the kitchen, “Britt, honey, give him hell.”

Within five minutes, Santana was smirking into a cup of coffee as she heard the shrieks resonating around the apartment, Brittany chasing Blaine towards the bathroom, nerf gun pellets flying everywhere.

Half an hour later found Santana still sat in the kitchen flicking through a magazine and waiting for her pint sized best friend to emerge from his room, Brittany having left for work already. Glancing up as Blaine’s door opened, she sniggered while he was still trying to towel rub his curls dry. “Come here you,” She laughed, tugging him into his arms and starting to roll the sleeves of his form fitting black shirt up properly. “You never change, do you Hobbit?” She laughed, eyeing up the tight red pants that completed his outfit.

Chuckling, Blaine grabbed the cup of coffee waiting for him on the bench and shook his head, leaning on the other side of the island to where Santana was sitting. “Not true Tana, not true at all. Bow ties and ties don’t tend to mix with cooking so much, not to mention the curls,” he said, pointing to the tamed but not insanely gelled down hair he was sporting.

Smiling, Santana shook her head, “Ok, fair enough, you’re not a helmet head anymore.” Pausing, she let her eyes roam over him, worry flooding them. “You are ok though B, right? I mean, I know that after what happened with Kurt and everything that subsequently happened you’re probably never going to be the freakishly over optimistic person that you were when you first joined McKinley.”

Rounding the island and pulling the small Latina into his arms Blaine pressed a kiss to her temple. “Not going to lie Tana, if it weren’t for you and Sam, I don’t know where I’d be right now. But I'm all right. I'm going to be fine because I know that the two of you at the very least will always be there. I love you Tana.”

“I love you too Hobbit,” She sniffled softly, pulling back from his embrace, “But tell anyone about this cutesy little moment and I won’t hesitate to go all Lima Heights on your ass.”

“And there’s my Santana,” He laughed, hugging her again as she squirmed away from him. “Duly noted though.”

Laughing, she punched him lightly on the shoulder and hopped out of her seat. “Come on, I’ll buy lunch before we start work as a good luck thing for you.”

“Why exactly aren’t you at work already?”

Scoffing, Santana hammered the ground floor button and turned back to him with a quirked eyebrow. “Blaine please, I’m the boss I can do whatever I want.”

“But technically you're not,” Blaine frowned, eyebrows scrunching together in confusion. 

Glaring at Blaine, Santana stalked out of the elevator as soon as it reached the ground floor, “And for that Hobbit, you're paying for lunch.”

“But Sannie!” Blaine whined following closely at her heels.

Taking deep breaths to steady himself, Blaine glanced one more time at Santana’s retreating taxi before pushing open the door to the bakery come coffee shop. “Well, here goes nothing,” He whispered, carefully taking in the three tables that were currently sat in the coffee shop. Each tables of two who paid him no attention as he skittishly approached the counter, dinging the bell carefully as he reached it.

“Just a minute,” A sweet sounding voice called from out the back somewhere and Blaine couldn’t help but smile as he remembered his interview the week prior with the wonderful natured woman who was around his own age. Taking the opportunity to glance around the bakery more than he had done during his interview, he noted that there were only around ten tables of varying sizes before moving his attention to the various cakes and pastries that were made fresh on the property daily. What really caught Blaine’s attention though was an A4 picture sat on top of the impressive cake cabinet. Picking it up to inspect closer he couldn’t help the smile that formed on his face. The baby was dressed in a white summery dress, brown curls swept away from her face with matching white clips. She looked as though she was crawling along the grass to get to whoever was behind the camera, one of her hands extended up off of the ground to try and get to the person. Her face was filled with joy and if the large smile wasn’t enough to give it away, there was a certain sparkle in her ludicrously familiar blue eyes that would give it away.

“That’s Alice,” A soft voice murmured and Blaine whirled around, still clutching the picture carefully as he faced his new boss.

“She’s beautiful,” He smiled at Dani’s beaming face, “How old is she?”

Taking the picture, Dani’s entire features lit up with joy as she eyed up her daughter. “In that picture six months, it was that weirdly hot week in October before the cold set in the next week,” Smiling up at Blaine, “She’s ten months now though, and on the verge of walking God help us all.” Laughing she replaced the picture. 

“Well she truly is beautiful and looks like a happy kid,” Blaine chuckled just taking in the baby’s expression once more.

“Yeah well her Dad was on the other side of the camera, he’s pretty much Ally’s favourite person in the world. I mean he’s my best friend so I can see why,” Laughing she made her way behind the counter again, beckoning the confused Blaine to follow her.

Brow furrowing he watched the young woman who didn’t appear heartbroken in the least as she talked about her baby’s father as if he were nothing more than a friend. “Oh, so you two aren’t…” Trailing off Blaine felt himself blush crimson about to apologise for the intrusion as Dani started giggling.

“God no, we’d kill each other within the hour if we were ever together,” Guiding Blaine into the kitchen she hopped up onto one of the side benches and smiled at him once more. “No we’ve only ever been friends only ever will be. Alice was, well as much as I hit him for calling her it this morning, she was the best mistake that we ever made. Not too mention the fact that he is my go to guy to whinge about how hot make celebrities are and why I can never meet one. Right, anyway, down to business Mr Blaine Anderson, I want to see what you got, some of those recipes sounded awesome last week.”

Suddenly in his element, Blaine instantly started looking for his ingredients, Dani watching him with a soft smile and occasionally leaving to go serve the customers that streamed steadily in and out of the building.