23:30 at the Hummel and Anderson apartment, Blaine had put Lizzy inside her crib a couple hours ago, when she had fallen asleep during a movie that was on the TV, that Blaine couldn’t remember the name of.

Kurt, Blaine and Lizzy had returned from Ohio about a week ago. Unfortunately, Blaine didn’t get to talk to Burt like he had originally planned, but he assumed Burt talked to Kurt about it after dinner he first night. The fact that Kurt didn’t return to the living room when Burt did worried him at first, but when Kurt finally joined the rest of them with no signs on his face showing that he had been crying, Blaine felt an odd sense of comfort; whatever they talked about, it wasn’t an upsetting convocation.

Currently, Blaine was sitting on the armchair to the right of their sofa, while Kurt’s full body form took over their three seater settee as he slept. Blaine smiled, watching Kurt’s chest rise and fall evenly.

In their second last night in Ohio, Blaine reluctantly admitted to his friend David, who was now back in Africa, that he had feelings for his best friend. After he’d told him, David looked like he had wanted to talk to Blaine about it but, lucky for Blaine, Kurt had returned to their table at that moment.

Kurt hummed in his sleep, turning over, his face and body now facing the TV.

I should wake him up, thought Blaine. Kurt went to work tomorrow, and he knew that Kurt wouldn’t be happy to wake up with a sore back for sleeping on the couch the whole night, never mind the fact that he was creasing his very expensive shirt and still wearing skinny jeans. Blaine went back to work in two days, but fortunately, the venues he was performing at for his first few days back were either in the early evening or later night, by which time, Kurt would be home.

Blaine kneeled down in front of Kurt, brushing his hair back with his hand before resting it on his shoulder. If Kurt had been wearing more comfortable clothes, or already wearing his Pjs, Blaine would have risked carrying to him to his room but, he wasn’t so-

“Kurt.” Blaine whispered, gently shaking Kurts shoulder, “Kurt, come on, time for bed.”

Kurt stirred, “’m sleepin‘” he mumbled, rolling back onto his back, his eyes still closed.

“I know,” Blaine sympathised, “but you have to go to bed, Kurt, you‘ve got work in he morning.” Kurt let out a moan of dread, “Come on, off the couch, into bed.” Blaine instructed, prodding Kurts chest.

“Okay.” Kurt said, groggily. He cracked open his eyes, leaving them half closed and slowly sat up.

Blaine helped his half asleep friend to his feet, wrapping his arm over his shoulders to support him as they walked to Kurts room. Kurt sat on his bed, lazily taking off his clothes while Blaine fetched his jammies out of the bottom drawer of his dresser before placing them, neatly folded, beside him.

“Did you set your alarm for the morning?” Blaine asked gently. Kurt shook his head. “No? I‘ll do it for you.”

After a few moments of trying to figure out how the alarm clock worked, Blaine managed to set Kurts alarm. He placed it on Kurts nightstand before turning to Kurt, who was now dressed in his pajamas.

“Okay.” Blaine pulled the duvet down. “Lie down, Kurt.” he said calmly. Kurt lay down, his feet going under the covers.

“’hank ‘ou” Kurt yawned as Blaine pulled his blanket up and over him.

“You‘re welcome.” Blaine pressed a gentle kiss to Kurts forehead, brushing his hair back before doing so. “Goodnight Kurt.” Kurt could only hum in response as Blaine turned off his bedroom light.

Just over a week later…

Kurt trudged into his apartment, throwing his thin jacket over the couch, and rubbing his neck.

“Rough day?” Blaine asked sympathetically from his spot on the floor, where he was playing with Lizzy.

“Rough week, more like it.” he said, grimly. Kurt sat down on the floor next to Blaine, setting his satchel behind him. “Hi honey!” he cheered up as Elizabeth crawled into his lap, he picked her up and kissed her cheeks “I missed you.” he placed her back down in the middle of the floor, watching her crawl over to her pop up toys. “So, how was your day?” he asked Blaine.

“It was good.” smiled Blaine, “Me and Lizzy got to play with the electric keyboard, Lizzy decided the song I was playing would sound better if she slammed her hand down on the keys. Silly baby.” he rolled his eyes fondly, “Oh!” Blaine stood up on his knees, and retrieved Lizzy. “Watch this. Come on, Lizzy, let’s show Kurt what we did this morning. Grab my finger. Good. Other one? Yes. Okay!”

Blaine stood Lizzy up by his fingers, which where in Lizzy’s vice-like grip. He felt Lizzy’s weight on his fingers and gently guided his fingers forward, causing Lizzy to take mini steps across the floor to keep her balance up to speed with Blaine.

“Aww!” Kurt screamed internally, “When do you think she’ll be able to do that without your help?”

“Not for a while, because if I stand her still-” he did so “and take my fingers out of her hands-” he did that too. And Kurt watched as Lizzy stood for a second before losing her balance and falling onto her bottom with a small ‘unf’. “-that happens” Blaine finished.

“Oh, well.” Kurt sighed, picking Lizzy up “Practise makes perfect doesn’t it?” he cooed, “Yes it does.” Kurt rolled backwards, onto his back and lay Lizzy’s stomach onto his chest “But, you are already perfect! Aren’t you?” he kissed her head, “Yes you are.” he claimed over Lizzy’s giggling.

“What about me?!” Blaine gasped in fake offence, as Kurt sat up again.

“Oh, I‘m sorry, Blaine.” Kurt replied playfully, as he set Lizzy down, “Do you feel left out?” he smirked. “You‘re so perfect, you‘re so perfect.” he said in a baby talk voice, as he crawled over to Blaine.

Blaine laughed, “Kurt, what are you doing?” Kurt pushed Blaine to the floor by his shoulders, pinning him to the ground. “Kurt!” Blaine giggled as Kurt lay down on top of him.

“Feel included yet?” Kurt smiled.

“Yes. Thank you.” Blaine smiled back.

Suddenly, their eyes caught each other and the atmosphere went silent. Kurts breath hitched as he unconsciously leant forward-

“Ahhnahaa” screamed Lizzy as she burst into tears.

Kurt shook his head to clear his head and rolled off Blaine, allowing him to sit up, as they crawled over to Lizzy to investigate what was wrong.

“What‘s the matter, darling?” asked Kurt, resting her on his knee. “Tell me. Tell daddy.” it was then Kurt realised that Lizzy was squeezing her fingers to her chest with her other hand as she sobbed. Blaine noticed too.

“What happened to your hand?” Blaine said, softly. “Let me see.” Blaine gently pried her hands away from her chest to examine them. “Ohh, that looks like it hurts.” he said, spotting a small blood blister on the side of one of her fingers. “Hold on.” Blaine got up and went to the kitchen, returning with a cloth that was damp with ice cold water. “There you go.” he wrapped it around her hand and kissed it.

Kurt put Lizzy over his back, rubbing her back comfortingly as she continued to cry. “Shh, shh. It‘s okay… How do you think she did this?”

“Hmm,” he scanned over the toys that Lizzy had been playing with, “she probably caught her finger between the lid of one of the pop up toys, when she was closing it.” Blaine stroked the back of Lizzy’s head, “She‘ll be fine.”

Kurt nodded, he stood up and slowly walked around the living room, lightly bouncing Lizzy as he went.

Minutes went by, and Lizzy’s howls hadn’t even started to lessen. “Blaine, why hasn’t she stopped crying?” Kurt panicked, “She’s never cried for this long!”

“Kurt calm down! It’ll only make it worse if you stress out!” Blaine said, evenly.

“But-”

“Give her to me for a second.” Kurt did so. “Thank you.” Blaine put Lizzy over his own shoulder, one hand on the back of her head and the other on her lower back, making small rotations. Lizzy’s cries quietened a little. “Alright.” he gave her back to Kurt. “Kurt, sit on the couch.” Kurt obeyed. “Right, now place your hand on the bottom of her back. Good. Now, like, massage.” Kurt pressed gently on her lower back, horizontally moving back and forth across it, making small rotations with his finger along the way.

Kurt felt Lizzy start to relax in his arms, her wails lessening until they were only light sniffles. Lizzy turned her head, resting it to the left of Kurts collar bone, and sucking on her thumb.

“Woah, that worked quickly.” said Kurt, impressed. “Where’d you learn how to do that?”

“You did it, Kurt. I just helped.” Blaine corrected.

“You know what I mean. How’d you know what to do?”

“Oh, well, that’s how I got her to stop crying at your dads. Took me a while to figure out, though.”

Kurt nodded, feeling her diaper. “Now, she needs changing. Fantastic.” he grumbled, retrieving the pink and purple striped diaper mat and placing it on the coffee table. He gently lay Lizzy down and changed her diaper as he continued to talk to Blaine. “By the way, my boss switched my off-work days this week…so, I’m at work tomorrow and off the day after, instead of the other way around.” he looked at Blaine, seeing his ‘oh, crap’ look, “Damn, it overlaps with your work tomorrow, doesn’t it?”

Blaine nodded, inhaling through his teeth “Yeah, I’m working in the morning, tomorrow. And it’s too late to cancel it.” Blaine added.

“Crap. Erm…” Kurt pinched the bridge of his nose.

Kurt and Blaine eventually settled on the idea of calling up a babysitting service. They decided to arrange the time for about half an hour before the time that they both had to leave in order to see if Lizzy was okay with the stranger that was going to be inside of their home. So that was the last thing they did before bed; arrange the appointment.

It was discovered that the venue that Blaine was performing at was only around the corner from Kurts work place! And they coincidently started within a few minutes of each other, because of this, the two men were going to spilt a cab to save money and time.

Kurt agreed that he would wake Blaine up when his alarm went off, or at least attempt to.

Blaine put Lizzy into her crib and mumbled a tired ‘Goodnight’ to Kurt, which Kurt returned.

Kurt stayed up for another hour or so, sleepily organising his things for the following morning. Eventually, everything was neatly packed away. Normally, Kurt would do everything the following morning but with the added time waster of waking Blaine up and meeting this mystery babysitter, Kurt thought it would be best to organize himself before he went to bed.

Already half asleep, Kurt tumbled into his bed as his vision faded to black.

Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock.

The loud rapping noise bounced it’s way around Kurt and Blaines apartment, causing Kurt to stir slightly. He opened his eyes as he heard the discomforting gurgles from the baby monitor by his alarm clock.

Knock-knock-knock-knock. KNOCK!

Kurt sat up, rubbing his eyes as a frustrated sounding voice called through the door of his apartment. “Mr. Hummel! Mr. Anderson! This is Vicky form the babysitting service! You called yesterday, remember!”

Slightly confused, Kurt rotated his clock and checked the time. His eyes widened. “Shit!” he whispered harshly. “Just a minute!” he called back to the voice behind the front door.

Kurt rushed out of his room and into Blaines, diving on top of Blaine’s log-like sleeping form. “Blaine!” he cried, urgently “Wake up! Wake up!” Blaine gasped at the unexpected weight, and opened his eyes.

“Kurt?”

“We overslept, Blaine! And the sitter is outside!! Get up now!” Kurt briefly left Blaine’s room before returning with their little toddler, quickly handing her to Blaine, “Sort her out! I need to get dressed and moisturise!” Kurt ran back to his own room.

A few minutes later, a messily dressed Kurt opened his apartment door, letting the 18-20 year old woman in. “Sorry for making you wait so long, we’re running late this morning.” he explained, “Just sit on the couch while we finish getting ready.”

The woman, Vicky, sat down, making herself comfortable as she heard the urgent scattering and scurrying from the two closed bedroom doors.

Even more later, the two men emerged from their separate rooms, one of them carrying an infant in his muscular arms.

“By the way, I’m Kurt.” the brunette man said, “This is Blaine, and our daughter Lizzy.” he took the baby off the curly, black haired man and gave Lizzy to her. “I’m sorry we don’t have much time to get acquainted, but we really need to get going.” he stated ruefully, before kissing his daughters head. “Bye Lizzy. Coming Blaine?” Kurt said, tripping towards the door.

“Go hail a cab, I’ll be down in a second.” Blaine reasoned, as Kurt left the apartment. “Okay..?”

“Vicky.” she supplied.

“Vicky, erm… the formula’s in the kitchen cupboard along with clean bottles and instructions on how to make it.” he was speaking rather quickly in his haste to get to work on time. “Don’t worry about giving her baby food, we’ll do that when we get back. Help your self to coffee, and if you have any questions or concerns, mine and Kurts cell phone numbers are on the fridge.” he bent down, giving Lizzy a kiss. “Bye, honey, we’ll be back soon.” he said before rushing out of the apartment, shutting the door behind him.

If Blaine had just turned his attention to Lizzy for one more second, he would have noticed the tense, uncomfortable look that she wore…