One day, Kurt gets a call. Lizzie reads the caller ID out loud. It’s Santana.

“Hello?” he says when he picks up, “Santana?”

“Sup bitch,” Santana says and Kurt realises that it’s the first time in months that he’s heard her voice. She doesn’t sound any different, but Kurt’s seen some photos. He knows that she’s grown older as well. She also dyes her hair blonde every now and then. Apparently, it is for no reason and Kurt doesn’t question it.

“Hi, how are you?” Kurt asks, because wow, he really wants to know. They’ve texted, just like Kurt texted with all the other New Directions members, but they haven’t really talked.

“Good, okay, let’s cut the crap,” Santana says quickly. Alright. No time to catch up. “I am calling for our annual meeting, but you probably don’t know about it and I’m not sure if your future hubby has told you.”

“Wait. What?” Kurt knows that it can’t be a professional meeting. Now that he’s back on stage, he also has access to his digital calendar and Santana isn’t on the list.

“So, every year, we drive up to New York to chill with you guys. Rachel, Jesse, Kitty and Roderick are obviously expecting us, but I decided to call you, just to be sure. Fuck, I can totally imagine that Blaine’s completely forgotten about it.”

“Oh, uhm, Blaine hasn’t said a word,” Kurt admits. Just like Santana, he can completely understand. “When will you be here?”

“Like, in three days? This weekend?”

“This weekend?” Kurt yells out. Just then, the front door opens and Blaine’s home from a meeting. He’s been having those a lot lately, since the album isn’t progressing as he’d hoped. A few seconds later, he steps into the living room and Kurt waves to get his attention. Santana is talking to him about hotels and restaurants, but he barely hears it.

Blaine makes a phone hand shape and he frowns.

“Santana is on the phone.”

Blaine’s face immediately changes. He must’ve realised why Santana is calling.

“Wait, Santana!” Kurt cuts her off, “Blaine is here.” He puts the phone on speakerphone and Blaine sits next to him. He looks slightly ashamed. He knows he could’ve prevented this information dump. Kurt squeezes his hand as a sign that he is not mad at him.

“Hey Santana,” Blaine says.

“Ah okay, so, you haven’t told Kurt about our annual tradition,” Santana sounds condescending, but Kurt doesn’t know if she’s joking or not. Santana’s vagueness hasn’t changed. “The three of us are coming this weekend, Blaine.”

“Ah. Yes. I must’ve forgotten.”

“Obviously,” Santana says and Kurt imagines her rolling her eyes, “But given the circumstances, I get why you forgot to tell your man. We’re all grasping in the dark as well. Isabel has no idea what to draw for this year.”

Isabel?

Blaine laughs a bit. “Maybe a Broadway theatre? Kurt had his debut a while ago.”

“And we’re damn proud of you, Kurt,” Santana says and they can hear Brittany cheer in the background. It warms his heart. They had also sent flowers and a nice card. They signed it with “love from the LoPierces”, which confirms that they’re married.

“Wait, go back to this annual thing. What is it?”

“Honestly, it is just a way for Rachel to show off,” Blaine says and Santana bursts into laughter.

“He’s not wrong!” she says through the laughter.

“Rachel started the tradition after Brittany and Santana settled in New Jersey. It’s close enough for an annual New York based reunion. But lately, she uses it to reveal big news.”

“Fuck, remember that time when she temporarily left New York for a shitty TV show?” Santana laughs again and Kurt knows about that. Rachel has told him with a lot of pain and regret in her voice. The show truly was bad. “Oh, that was some fucked up shit.”

“Language, Santana!” Brittany yells from the back, but it only makes everyone laugh. Santana would never watch her language.

Unless…

The three of us?

Blaine continues the explanation: “But basically, we hang out for the weekend and we also have a lunch at our place on Saturday-” Kurt’s head jerks towards Blaine “-and we try to see a show with Isabel and one without her. We try to keep it low profile, but Rachel always manages a way to upstage it.”

“Wait, why are we hosting a lunch?” Kurt says. He’s been to Rachel and Jesse’s apartment. It is even bigger, because they have two offices. Kurt has warmed up to the casual dinner parties, but why in his home?

Blaine looks at him in a funny way. “Because you insisted on it all those years ago.”

That shuts him up and to be fair, it makes sense. Kurt’s always hosted tea parties since he was a kid. He just never expected to grow a bit dissatisfied with it. It’s a sign of the amnesia. “Well, time to do groceries.”

Blaine looks apologetic. “I… I didn’t even notice that you hadn’t started yet. Usually, you plan this lunch a month beforehand but I-”

He turns back to the phone lying between them. Santana does not need to know that Blaine is not in a great headspace caused by a creative rut. His plans on releasing a new album are slowly dying out, since he cannot manage to put any lyrics on paper.

“I have been too busy,” he says instead and Kurt nods. It is a reasonable answer and Santana snorts.

“Yeah man, you’ve always been busy. Crazy times for you two right now, so that is why I thought I’d call,” she says. If she still thinks it is very weird, then she doesn’t let them know.

Suddenly, Kurt and Blaine hear a crash and Santana grumbles and curses.

“Isabel!” Brittany yells in the background, “How many times has mama told you not to touch that. Santana, can you get the vacuum cleaner from the hallway?”

And Kurt now knows for sure.

“Alright guys, looks like I gotta do damage control. See you on Friday!” Santana says and they hear a child start to wail.

“Go do the damage control,” Blaine sounds very fond.

Santana ends the phone call and Blaine shakes his head while smiling. “That kid is always up to something.” He touches Kurt’s knee before getting up. “Do you want some coffee?”

But Kurt is silent.

“Kurt?”

Kurt blinks a few time before saying: “They have a kid?”

Now, Blaine is stunned into silence as well. Brittany and Santana having a kid must be so normal for him.

“They have a kid?” Kurt asks again, louder this time. How did he not know this?

Well, it is very clear why he does not know this. But it’s kind of mind-blowing that in the past few months, it never came up. Damnit, Kurt is thirty-four, almost thirty-five, and so are his friends. Of course, it makes sense that of his friends have kids.

Married is one thing, but kids?

Kurt wracks his brain. What does he actually know of the New Directions alumni, based on Rachel and Kitty’s ramblings and the few conversations over message apps with the others? He knows that Artie and Tina are married. He knows that Sam and Mercedes have their weird relationship. Rachel and Jesse are together.

Puck and Quinn are together, but are they married? Do they have kids? What about Mike and his girlfriend? Or wife? Tina has mentioned that Mike is living with a woman who Kurt does not know.

Blaine puts his hand on Kurt’s shoulder. “Kurt?”

“Can I see her?”

Blaine is taken aback by his request, but he fishes his own phone out of his pocket and he taps the screen a couple of times. Then, he shows Kurt a photo of Brittany, Santana and a beautiful little girl. Blaine smiles fondly. “She’s growing so fast.”

Easy for him to say. He probably has seen her grow up, but Kurt feels like he’s been slapped in his face. Santana - his Santana – is a mother? The last time Kurt saw her, she threw up in Rachel’s designer bag after going out and there was a huge shouting match afterwards.

Kurt went to bed to ignore his roommate fighting and he woke up fifteen years later.

“How old is she?”

“She’ll turn five this year. She takes after Santana. This is why Brittany and Santana left the city. They got married and moved to New Jersey to start a family.”

The fact that it is probably easier for same-sex couples to have children should make Kurt feel delighted, but he is still a bit in shock.

“The thought of them settling down in order to start a family feels weird to me. They’re too young in my eyes.”

“Except that they aren’t.”

“I know that!”

Blaine backs away. “Okay, okay. Let it all out. I’m still going to brew that pot of coffee.”

Kurt sighs. “… I’ll join you later. I need to talk to my mom.”

Isabel is a menace.

A lovely menace, but a menace. She definitely takes after Santana.

Brittany and Santana have aged – obviously – and Kurt’s jaw drops when he sees that Brittany is now rocking a pixie cut. Santana wears a lot of make-up, but that is the current trend. Between them, there is a little girl with tanned skin and long black hair. She’s the splitting image of Santana, minus the eye colour. She has Brittany’s eye colour.

On Friday, Kurt gets to know the full story from their perspectives.

They never expected it either, but the want for a family overthrew them when they were in their late twenties. Santana never expected to settle down before her forties, but one day, they had a dance performance and a little boy sat in the audience with his parents and it just clicked.

By that point, they’d already gotten married. They quit their jobs, moved to the New Jersey suburbs, started IVF and started their own dance studio. Isabel was born in 2022. Kurt already loves her.

On Friday, they go and see a family friendly musical called The Rubbers (Santana has to stop herself from making a not family friendly joke) and Rachel has used her star power to get dinner reservations for everyone. She’s already showing off. Rachel knows how to throw people off-guard.

That is why, on Saturday morning, Rachel tells Kurt that she’s invited Sebastian, Adam, Mae and Wes to the lunch at Kurt’s place.

“Are you fucking kidding me, Rachel?” Kurt yells angrily.

“It has a reason!”

“Well, this is not reasonable!” Kurt shouts and Blaine just reads a book on the couch. This is apparently not a rare occurrence.

“Trust me, Kurt. They don’t even have to stay for lunch. I just have a big announcement!” Rachel says as if that is a justification. Typical Rachel. She can be selfish when needed.

He could’ve seen it coming. Santana did tell him about Rachel’s tendency to do dramatic reveals.

“That makes me look like a shit host and I’ve already worked my ass off in the past few days to get this ready.” Blaine’s obviously been helping, but still, it was a lot of preparation.

“They know what to expect, Kurt. No worries. Otherwise I can always hire extra catering.” It is meant as a reassurance, but to Kurt it feels like an insult. It wouldn’t have been necessary if it weren’t for her selfishness. He’s boiling with anger and annoyance. He catches his reflection in the glass window and the urge to straighten all his clothing overwhelms him. That is a new one.

“… Rachel, I am going to kill you.”

“When you hear the news, you’ll understand.”

Kurt really does not have the time to fight her, since he still has to get ready. “This better be good.”

Rachel squeals as if she’s just won a big battle. “Yes, Kurt, I love you so, so much!”

Kurt hangs up without saying another word. Blaine looks up from his book. “Rachel is at it again?”

Kurt just shakes his head. This better be good.

As an olive branch, Rachel has requested to other to come over after lunch. Kurt is still very annoyed by her, but they have a nice time.

Kitty and Rodrick are once again wearing matching bowling shirts. Isabel thinks it is old school that Kurt and Blaine still have photos. Brittany and Santana feed each other little bites. Jesse and Rachel are radiating with happiness.

He watches Isabel smash her food with her hands (much to her mothers’ distain) and yeah, everyone is growing up. They’re all in their thirties. Most of his friends have full-time jobs with the daily 9 to 5 grind.

The bell rings and the others have arrived for Rachel’s big announcement.

Rachel and Jesse tells everyone to sit down in Kurt and Blaine’s living room.

“Blaine, tell Mimi to put on celebratory music!” Rachel orders and Blaine follows it. When the music is playing, Rachel says: “Thank you all for coming. I wanted all of you to be here to hear our big news.”

“Drumroll please!” Jesse yells out and everyone starts drumming on surfaces. Even Kurt drums along. He’s still mad at her, but now he’s caught up in the excitement.

Then, Rachel puts her hand on her belly.

“I’m pregnant!”

Chaos erupts. Everyone is yelling and hooting and celebrating. Mae pulls Rachel into a big hug and Santana pats Jesse on the shoulder. Isabel asks to feel the belly. Blaine yells at Mimi to put on another more upbeat party song.

And Kurt? Well, he wishes he could join the others, but he just feels numb. They’re really growing up and maybe he isn’t handling it as well as he thought.