Saturday the 2nd of April 2011

“Why is she still crying?” Kurt whined at two in the morning. “You’ve done everything!”

“This happens sometimes. I think they are tummy aches.” Blaine sighed and rocked Bella back and forth. “I’m sorry it had to happen today.”

“Don’t apologize. It’s neither yours nor Bella’s fault. This is the reality you live in; I should be able to handle it for one day.”

“My arms hurt.” Blaine whined through Bella’s screaming. “And my ears too.”

“Here, let me take her.” Kurt stood from the mattress on the floor - which they had put out for him to sleep on - and reached his arms out to take the baby from Blaine.

Blaine handed her over and Bella continued to cry. Kurt copied Blaine’s movements from before as Blaine sat down heavily on the bed and flopped backwards with his arms stretched out. “This is why most of the dorms beside mine are empty.”

“Shh, Bella. You’re okay.” Kurt cooed, starting to bounce her up and down slightly instead of swinging back and forth.

After a few minutes Kurt heard snoring and looked startled toward the bed.

Blaine was asleep. Fully clothed and on his back with his legs dangling over the edge. Kurt closed his mouth that had fallen open in surprise. “Your dad is adorable, you know that?” he whispered to Bella after rolling his eyes. She had stopped crying and was just whining now. “Are you feeling better, cutie-face?” He smiled slightly and started rocking her back and forth again. “You want me to sing for you?”

After sitting down on the mattress on the floor with Bella still in his arms he started singing quietly.

“Kurt?”

Kurt turned his head toward Blaine’s voice and squinted one eye open to look at him. He looked very surprised.

“What?” Kurt grumbled. “Why that face?” Blaine just grinned, and that’s when Kurt realized something warm was pressed against his side. His eyes flew open wide and he angled his head to look down at a little mop of curls. “She fell asleep!” he exclaimed, moving the arm that was pinned below Bella carefully so he wouldn’t wake her. When he was free he sat up and pulled his quilt over her tiny figure.

“Did you knock her out or something?” Blaine whispered, followed by a giggle.

Kurt rolled his eyes, standing up and walking over to Blaine who stood beside his pillow. “Morning.” he mumbled and kissed his cheek. He felt his own cheeks heat when he pulled back and realized Blaine looked really shocked. “Too casual?”

“No.” Blaine mumbled. “It’s… nice.” He smiled softly and stroked Kurt’s hand with his thumb. “I need to make some formula for when she wakes back up.”

“When do you think that’s gonna be?”

“Probably within an hour. But she’s slept far longer than usual already.” Blaine laced their fingers together. “That usually happens when she has tummy aches.”

“Poor thing.” Kurt looked down at the little girl and smiled softly. “She’s absolutely precious.”

“She is… Wanna see how I make her formula?”

“Sure.”

Blaine dragged Kurt by the hand through the bedroom and into a small room connected to it. The little room had been turned into a kitchen with cabinets, a microwave oven, a sink, a mini fridge and two hotplates.

“So, it’s super easy.” Blaine let go of Kurt’s hand and opened one of the cabinets along the wall. “You take this yellow plastic jar with powder and put two spoonfuls in one of the bigger bottles.” he explained while showing Kurt how to do it. “Then you pour some pre-boiled water from this bottle, up to here. Then close, pinch the top and shake!”

Kurt chuckled at Blaine’s “lesson”, took the bottle from him and continued to shake it. “Seems easy enough.”

Blaine chuckled. “One might think so. Until you pour instant coffee into it in the middle of the night.” Kurt started giggling and Blaine grinned at him. “True story.” Kurt started to laugh, putting his free hand in front of his mouth. Blaine winked at him before walking over to Kurt’s mattress and carefully picking Bella up. She snuggled into his arms in her sleep as he walked over to the two-person sofa in the corner behind the door. He sat down and leaned back, his daughter sleeping soundly against his chest. Blaine turned the small TV on to an episode of Project Runway and rested his chin on top of Bella’s head. She sighed in her sleep when Kurt cautiously sat down next to them. “You like this show, right?” Blaine whispered hopefully while keeping his eyes on the TV.

“I do.” Kurt replied, shifting closer to Blaine on the couch and leaning his head against his shoulder. “But I don’t care if you want to watch something else. I’m happy just enjoying your company.” He handed the shaken bottle to Blaine who smiled at him.

“I like your pajamas by the way. Suits you.”

Kurt blushed furiously and tugged self-consciously on one of the buttons of his silk pajama shirt. “Thank you.” They watched the show silently for a few minutes before Kurt nervously whispered “I like yours too.”.

Blaine chuckled. “White t-shirt and Dalton sweatpants?”

“Uh-huh.” Kurt glanced from the embroided D on Blaine’s leg to Bella who had started moving.

“Thanks.” Blaine grinned, sitting up straighter. “Bella?” He moved her so she was lying with her back along his arm with her feet on Kurt’s leg. “You hungry, baby?”

Bella whined and rubbed her face against Blaine’s chest before rolling her head to the side, peeking her eyes open to look at her father. Kurt couldn’t stop the “aaww” coming from his mouth as she smiled at Blaine and then turned her eyes to him. She gurgled happily and stretched an arm out toward him. “Morning cutie-face!” Kurt grinned and tickled the palm of her outstretched hand. “You fell asleep on me!” Bella just gurgled happily at him again before looking back at her dad.

“You hungry?” Blaine repeated before he gave Bella the bottle. She started eating right away, closing her eyes again; And Blaine only needed to help her hold it a little.

 “She only eats formula?” Kurt questioned, having forgotten about Project Runway completely as he watched the two Andersons.

“No, just when she wakes up and when I put her to bed. I’ll show you a regular lunch or dinner later.” Blaine tipped Bella’s bottle upwards a little. “So what do you want to do today? Saturdays are usually our lazy days.”

“I don’t know. Whatever you feel like. Saturdays are usually my homework days, but we don’t have any for next week so…”

“Well, I’m gonna give Bella a bath and we can go for a walk too.”

“That sounds lovely.” Kurt smiled wide when Bella let go of the empty bottle and reached her arms out toward him. “Gimme.” he said and sat up, reaching his arms out to hold Bella.

Blaine laughed and handed her over. “Will you burp her then?”

Kurt froze in the middle of booping Bella’s nose with his indexfinger. “I can’t do that!”

“Of course you can.” Blaine grinned. “You just hold her against your shoulder and pat her back. Super-easy.”

“But what if I break her?”

Blaine grinned even wider. “You won’t! You’re doing fine holding her right now.”

Kurt poked Bella’s nose and she squealed happily. “Okay, I’ll try.”

“But if you really don’t feel comfortable doing it, then I’ll do it and you can have her right back.”

Kurt looked up at Blaine’s supportive smile and bit his jaw together. He stood and leaned Bella against his shoulder carefully. He patted her back and after just the second pat Bella burped. “I did it!” he said happily as he lifted her back down into his arms and sat down.

“Good job.” Blaine grinned and patted Kurt’s knee.

“There.” Blaine said as he put Bella’s yellow little bowl down on the Dining Hall table.

Bella was sitting in a high chair at the end of one of the long tables in Dalton’s lunch room, Kurt and Blaine on either side of her. Blaine had just finished making Bella’s lunch and sat down opposite to Kurt.

“She eats that?” Kurt frowned as he looked down into Bella’s bowl.

“Uh-huh.” Blaine nodded and touched a spoonful against his upper lip.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m checking that it’s not too warm.” Blaine fed the spoon to Bella who munched on it happily. “You don’t have any idea how this baby-stuff works, huh?” He winked at Kurt, who blushed.

“No, I’m a gay guy in High School.”

“I am too.” Blaine grinned and fed Bella another spoonful.

“Sorry. Bad choice of words.” Kurt poked his fork through his salad and looked around the room at the few other blazer-clad boys. “I just have never had the urge to learn, and I usually don’t watch stuff like that on TV either.”

“I get it. Some of the guys in the Warblers act like they’ve never seen a person below the age of fifteen before.”

“Wes?” Kurt giggled.

“Yup.” Blaine chuckled and took a forkful of his own food with the hand that wasn’t feeding Bella. “Wanna try feeding her?”

“Sure.” Kurt put his fork down and accepted the spoon from Blaine. He took a small amount from the yellow bowl and held it up. “This much?” Blaine nodded as he chewed on his lunch, so Kurt held the spoon in front of Bella’s mouth. She opened willingly and took all of the food in. She munched on it and a little ran down her chin.

“Now do this.” Blaine said, stretched his arm out and grabbed Kurt’s hand, directing it to scoop the food from Bella’s face and then put it back in her mouth. “Great.”

“Well, that wasn’t very hard.” Kurt smiled proudly when Blaine pulled back.

“I’ve never had time to go this far out on campus. I had no idea it was this huge.” Kurt looked up at the crowns of the enormous oak trees above the little paved path they were walking on.

Blaine pushed Bella’s stroller along as he too looked above them. “It’s beautiful. I love taking walks here when the weather is this nice.”

“It’ll be amazing when we can have Bella walk with us instead of being in the stroller.”

Blaine looked down from the branches above and grinned at Kurt. “Yeah. It will.”

They walked for a couple of minutes before they reached a small clearing with a fountain in the middle, surrounded by benches. The fountain was a sculpture of a man that Kurt had seen plenty of paintings of inside the school; The founder of Dalton Academy. Around the statue were fish with big mouths, which the water sprinkled out of. Blaine walked over to and sat down on one of the benches and closed his eyes. “It’s lovely to sit here and listen to the water and the birds.” He opened on eye and focused it on Kurt. “Except for when some of the guys bring their girlfriends here to make out in the evenings.”

“I imagine this would be a great place for- that.” Kurt sat down beside Blaine and placed his hands on his knee. He leaned against the backrest and closed his eyes, feeling the sun making his skin prickle with warmth. After a moment he felt Blaine’s arm around his shoulders and leaned his head to the side, touching their temples together. “I like this.”

“Awesome weather, isn’t it?” Blaine joked and Kurt poked him in the ribs. “Sorry, kidding. I like this too.”

Bella whined from where she was still sitting in the stroller and Blaine moved to pick her up. Kurt whined too, before Blaine moved back and sat Bella and her yellow fish down between himself and Kurt. “Have you put sunscreen on her?” Kurt said and pulled at Bella’s little white hat.

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“What about-“

“She’s fine, Kurt.” Blaine chuckled. “Don’t worry. We go on walks on a regular basis.”

“Okay. Good.” Kurt tickled Bella’s tummy and she squealed happily.

Blaine smiled at them before looking over at the fountain. “Do you think the guys know… about us?”

“They probably haven’t noticed any difference since before.” Kurt chuckled. “And Trent has asked me if we’re boyfriends at LEAST once a week since we met.”

“When should we tell them?” Blaine rubbed Kurt’s shoulder with his thumb, sending sparks of electricity through Kurt’s body.

“In a couple of weeks.” Kurt shuddered, but Blaine didn’t react. “When it’s been a month maybe?”

“Sounds like a good plan.”

Dinner turned out to be a messy affair, which is why Kurt ended up on Blaine’s bathroom floor with his shirtsleeves rolled up. He and Blaine stood on their knees next to the tub where Bella was splashing happily with her arms.

“I usually let her play for a while before I actually get to washing her.”

“She likes fish, huh?” Kurt raised an eyebrow at Blaine. “Or is it you?”

“She loves them!” Blaine defended, pouring a little water across Bella’s back with his hand. “Especially that yellow plush one she’s always sucking on.”

Kurt laughed and swam a purple fish with green stripes toward Bella who squealed and batted at it with her tiny fists. Water droplets flew everywhere, including Kurt’s sleeves and hair. But he couldn’t care less. It was so much fun to make Bella make those adorable happy baby noises.

Blaine turned the water off and put a small dot of baby shampoo in his hand before carefully smearing it into Bella’s dark hair. She pouted and Kurt had to laugh. The little girl looked so much like Blaine it was hard to even think she shared DNA with someone else too. When he was done Blaine took the shower head and carefully rinsed Bella’s hair out, while cupping his hand over her forehead so she wouldn’t get shampoo in her eyes. He put the shower head back in place before taking a wash cloth and holding it out toward Kurt. “Wanna help clean off her dirty face?”

“Sure!” Kurt replied happily, took the cloth from Blaine and started dabbing at Bella’s face.

She babbled on in her non-understandable baby language as Kurt washed her face and Blaine washed her arms and back.

After a couple of minutes Blaine leaned back on his knees and wiped some water off of his cheek. “All done. Just let me get a towel.” He stood and rummaged through the wardrobe.

Kurt played with the purple fish a bit more, making Bella make noises sounding almost like real laughter. Blaine returned with a big, fluffy red towel that had a hood with eyes sewed onto it.

“It’s Elmo!” Kurt exclaimed as Blaine bent down and picked Bella out of the tub, wrapping her in the towel and putting the hood on her head.

“Yeah.” Blaine grinned. “Dad bought it.”

“That’s adorable.”

“Here.” Blaine held Bella out toward Kurt who took her carefully. “Hold her while I get a diaper and her new clothes.”

Kurt walked into the bedroom and sat down on the bed. He dried Bella off with the Elmo-towel as Blaine rummaged around in the wardrobe again. When Bella was all dry Blaine had finally found some clothes for her. He walked over and was about to hand them to Kurt when he stopped and deflated. “I should put her in pajamas right away instead of giving her the opportunity to get these dirty before bed.”

“You’re probably right.” Kurt grinned and took just the diaper from Blaine, leaving it on the bed beside him as Blaine walked back to the wardrobe and got Bella’s pajamas.

Kurt got to put Bella’s diaper on before they put Bella in her pajamas and got her ready for bed.

Kurt fell asleep quickly that night, exhausted from the very interesting day he’d spent with Blaine and Bella.

Tuesday the 7th of September 2010

Blaine hadn’t planned on going to that singing thing, but he’d met Jeff again in the morning. So Blaine walked with the excited blonde through the tall halls of the school, toward the faint sound of singing. It grew stronger until they finally stopped in front of a pair of huge, closed doors.

“You ready, man?” Jeff said excitedly, but with a small spike of worry in his eyes.

Blaine took a deep breath and put on a smile. “Yeah.”

 Jeff opened both the doors at once, and the singing stopped as everyone’s heads turned to look at them.

“Guys, this is Blaine Anderson.” Jeff said and pushed Blaine forward into the group of blazer-clad boys.

A chorus of greetings and welcomes washed over Blaine as all the guys moved toward him to shake hands and pat him on the shoulder.

There was the sound of wood being knocked against wood and everybody turned to where a guy was sitting behind a long table with a gavel. All the guys scattered and sat down on couches and chairs in the room.

“Welcome, Blaine Anderson. I am Wesley Johnson and this is the first meeting of the Warblers this year. I assume you came to audition?”

“I did, yes. Jeff told me about you guys and I love to sing so I thought-“

“Do you have a song prepared?” Wesley interrupted, but smiled friendly at Blaine.

“I do, yes.” Blaine wiped his slightly sweaty palms on his pants and tried to smile back confidently.

“Well, go ahead. The floor is yours.” He gestured with the gavel toward an empty space at the back of the room.

Blaine hesitated before turning around and walking to the back of the room.

“Don’t be nervous. We’re all really nice.” Trent whispered as he passed him and Jeff gave Blaine the thumbs up as he turned back toward all the boys watching.

He shook some tension out of his hands and pursed his lips together before he started singing.

When he was done he was accepted into the Warblers with cheers, applause and hugs.

Thursday the 7th of April 2011

Kurt checked the time on his phone for the third time as he continued not to listen to Wes talking about whatever.

“Kurt? Are you with us?” Wes said with a small frown.

“I should go check if Bl-“

“Sometimes he’s late for our meetings. It’s because of Bella, so it’s fine.”

“He’s never been THIS late.” Kurt pressed. It had been more than fifteen minutes. “I’m gonna go check on him.” Kurt rose from the couch and Wes just sighed.

This made Kurt even more annoyed, so he stormed out of the room without another word to anyone. He’d be irritated with Blaine if he had just stayed in his dorm cuddling with Bella. Of course Kurt wanted Blaine to spend as much time with her as possible, but Blaine had said he’d be at the meeting by now and that they might tell the guys that they’re dating during the meeting.

He became more and more annoyed as he stormed through the halls, but stopped abruptly as he saw Rita the nanny walk past him a few meters away with Bella in her arms. She didn’t see him so she just kept walking out of sight. A weird feeling started clawing at Kurt’s insides as he sped up his walk to Blaine’s dorm room. When he reached the door he knocked carefully, but then he heard it.

Crying.

He yanked the door open and looked worriedly around the room. Blaine was sitting on the sofa, crying with a piece of paper in his hand.

“Blaine!” Kurt exclaimed and shut the door behind him. He sat down next to Blaine and put a hand on his back. “What’s wrong? What’s that?”

Blaine sobbed and turned toward Kurt, dropping his head down onto his shoulder and angling his wet nose against Kurt’s neck. Kurt took the paper from Blaine who wrapped both arms around Kurt’s torso. Kurt hugged Blaine tightly and looked at the paper over Blaine’s shoulder. His insides froze as he read the handwritten words at the bottom of what was apparently a letter.

Love, Bel.