"I want that one." Julie pointed at the vampire doll from some tv show about stylish monsters with too tight clothing and completely unbelievable proportions. Kurt's mind was buzzing, thinking about the message he was sending if he approved of this doll, and how it depicted women.

"She's the leader of the Vampies. She's the smart one." Julie noted, watching Kurt's face twist in thought and probably realizing she needed to sell him a little more on the idea if she was going to get her way.

Kurt was now trying to determine if the sex appeal of the doll was offset by the personality traits Julie had associated with the doll. Really, Blaine should be the one at the toy store with her, helping her spend her birthday money from the Anderson grandparents. Kurt was overanalyzing everything and Julie was just getting frustrated because he kept coming up with reasons to say no. No to the Lego sets because he was afraid her little brother would try and consume a piece and end up choking, no to the princess costume because he could tailor one that would be of much better quality for less in overall costs, and no to the nerf guns because he didn't want to condone violence.

"Come on daddy... Just let me get something I want... It's my money after all that grandpa and grandma Anderson said I should spend how I want. Please?"

Kurt sighed and shook his head. "I don't know Jules. I don't want you to think that this is the way girls are expected to look or dress. If I let you get this then it seems like I'm alright with girls being shown that way."

"Oh my gosh daddy... You are being a major pain. I just want to get something to play with." Julie had her arms crossed over her chest and Kurt could see she was trying to have a mature reaction to him denying her everything she had asked for, but he could also see the tears forming in her eyes that told him she was getting past the point of frustration and patience.

Kurt knelt down in front of the girl and set a hand lightly on each of her shoulders, looking her steadily in the eye, "I just want to make sure you're making good choices so I feel like I'm being a good dad. Maybe we should take a break and come back later?"

Julie shook her head, "No. I really want to spend my money so I have something cool and new to show the kids at dance class."

"Sweetie... That's not the reason to buy something. You should get something that makes you happy, not something just for showing off."

Julie huffed and turned her face away from Kurt, the final step before she would start crying, avoiding eye contact.

"I know you're mad at me sweetie, but I just want to be a good dad and sometimes that means making tough choices that you might not like, but will help you make better choices on your own as you get older."

She started whimpering and Kurt pulled her into his arms to console her, getting the odd pitiful look from other shoppers in the store until she calmed down, and Kurt could pick her up and take her out of the store and back to their car.

"Sorry Daddy..." She murmured as Kurt snapped her seatbelt in place and made sure it was secure around her.

"Oh my Jules. You have nothing to be sorry about. It's all part of learning and growing up."

"Can dad take me to the store later? I'll think about what I really want..."

Kurt nodded and silently was relieved, Blaine was much better at this part of parenting than he was. Blaine seemed to know just how much to give in, and didn't perseverate on little details like Kurt did.

They drove to dance class. Kurt picked her up everyday after school to take her to various classes - dance, piano, violin, voice, and gymnastics. Since she had started school, it wasn't as easy to get her to classes. Audrey and George still went to daycare so they could attend classes during the day set up by the daycare center Kurt and Blaine had them registered at. Julie, however, had to have separate classes, and next year so would Audrey as she entered school.

Blaine had always argued that the kids were overscheduled and didn't have the freedom to just be kids, which Kurt always countered with the fact that Blaine himself had been in classes all the time too growing up, something Kurt would have killed for when he was younger. Blaine would then retort that he infact hated all his classes and wished he could just ride his bike or play at the park after school like so many other children, to which Kurt retorted that they lived in New York and that wasn't a reality for children there.

It had gone on back and forth like that since they had started putting Julie in classes, and the argument was no closer to being settled. All that was finalized though, was that Kurt had managed to keep them all in their classes. It was all due to a trick he utilized over the years. Whenever Blaine started going off on an issue that he knew they wouldn't come to a compromise over, or that at least Kurt wasn't going to give on, he started distracting Blaine with come-hither eyes and bending over until Blaine wasn't able to think about anything other than getting Kurt into bed - not that it was a sacrifice for Kurt to make.

Kurt dropped Julie off at the door to her dance class and watched to make sure she made it in before going to collect groceries during her class. He was currently on a break between shows, though would be starting again next week in a revisioning of Guys and Dolls. Rachel was once again acting as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, and Blaine was busy as ever composing music not only for musicals, but for TV shows now too.

Kurt spent the next half hour making decisions regarding which brand of tofu was more guilt free, and how many vegetables he could convince his family to eat without having any go bad until the next shopping trip. When he got back to the dance hall, Julie was waiting outside, talking with a couple of the other kids who were also waiting for parents. Kurt smiled to himself seeing that there were a couple boys in the mix, knowing how he had felt stigmatized for his participation in ballet when he was younger. It was good to see progress being made.

And then Julie leaned over and kissed one of the boys she was talking to before she saw Kurt pulling up. Kurt's jaw dropped and his immediate reaction was to press the horn, causing all the kids to jump in spot and squeak in surprise.

"Julie Elizabeth Hummel-Anderson! Get into this car immediately!" Kurt yelled through his open window, causing his daughter to turn the most violent shade of red. She hunched up her shoulders and slowly walked to the car, remaining quiet until she got in.

"What the heck daddy! That was soooo embarrassing..."

"Let me tell you what's embarrassing!" Kurt interrupted and looked back at her, "Watching your eight year old sharing a kiss with another kid you don't even know. He could have diseases!"

Julie rolled her eyes, which only further irritated Kurt, who took off at a less than legal speed.

"Come on dad... it's not a big deal."

Dad. He always was Daddy and Blaine was Dad. Shit. Kurt thought. It's starting. I thought I had at least until twelve.

"It is a big damn deal little lady." He spoke, checking her reactions in the rear view mirror, "You are EIGHT. You should be playing with ponies and learning about multiplication - NOT locking lips with the first person to look at you."

"Whatever dad..." and Kurt watched her lips turn up into a knowing grin as his heart rate went straight up.

"Enough! We will talk about this at home." Kurt stammered. Really, he would just lose it if he continued to have this debacle of a conversation. He needed Blaine to weigh in.

They were silent for the rest of the ride home, Kurt's knuckles white around the steering wheel. Julie grabbed a few bags of groceries and Kurt grabbed the rest as they walked through the parkade and into the elevator, staying quiet for the whole ride. When they reached their level, Julie skipped ahead as if nothing was wrong, knocking her toes on the door until it was opened by Blaine who greeted Julie warmly and then looked at Kurt, his smile falling.

"What happened...?"

Kurt must have looked as stressed as he was feeling. He handed the bags to Blaine who took them to the kitchen without question, allowing him to greet the younger two.

"Daddy!", "DADDY!"

George and Audrey nearly bowled him over as they each went to hug a leg. Audrey was five now and George was three. They were almost the same height, and clearly biological brother and sister, but otherwise so different.

Audrey was still reserved and quiet. She was awkward in dance and gymnastics, getting anxious in bigger groups, so all her classes were all focused on learning different instruments, which she loved, which made Blaine endlessly happy. George on the other hand was a little social butterfly and charmer. He was constantly in motion and had a difficult time staying still for anything (which made potty training torture).

Kurt smiled weakly and kneeled down to give them both hugs, asking about their day and listening as they told him stories about finding a caterpillar, the crafts they had made, and how one of their friends had farted really loudly during quiet time. These were the kinds of things Kurt was actually more comfortable with as far as his children went. He was gleefully temporarily distracted from what he had to deal with earlier with Julie.

"Okay guys. Go tidy your rooms before supper. I need to talk to Daddy!" Blaine clapped behind them, and they obediently skipped off to their rooms, allowing Kurt to stand back up and look at Blaine.

"Alright... first off, I can't take her shopping for toys. I don't like anything she picks out."

Blaine smirked a little at that, but didn't interrupt him, knowing that there must be more.

"Secondly, I don't know how I'm suppose to react when one second she's looking at dolls and the next I'm catching her kissing some boy..."

"Whoa!" Blaine interrupted then, eyes going wide, "What?!"

"I picked her up from dance and she was kissing a boy! What's more is she told me it wasn't a big deal!" Kurt groaned and went to Blaine, who embraced him immediately.

"She's eight..." Blaine murmured.

"I know..." Kurt whimpered. "What the hell? Where did we go wrong?"

"No, no, no..." Blaine rubbed Kurt's back, "We just need to talk to her. See what's going on."

"She also started calling me dad..."

Blaine chuckled at that, "I'm surprised that didn't start sooner to be honest. Much as you'll always be her daddy, she is starting to feel the effects of peer pressure and I can't imagine any of the other kids refer to their dad as daddy anymore."

The husbands spoke quietly for awhile before going to Julie's room together. Audrey had her own room now, as did George - all of which reflected their own styles and interests. Julie's room was painted a minty green and had posters of her favourites bands and shows on the wall. She had a huge collection of books and Kurt was always ragging on her to pick up her clothing, which lay strewn around the floor every morning as she tried on several outfits before settling on one.

Instead of cleaning up like she was supposed to be, Julie was sitting on her bed, leaning back against the headboard and playing a game on her tablet. She looked up as the pair came in, and noticeably tensed up, but tried to play cool by looking back to her game nonchalantly.

"We need to talk Julie..." Blaine began, sitting on the edge of the far side of the bed while Kurt sat on the other side, both looking at Julie and effectively trapping her in the middle.

Julie sighed and set down the tablet, knowing she was caught. "I'm sorry. Look... I was tired of being bugged so I kissed Darcy. That's it."

Kurt raised an eyebrow and looked at Blaine, who was already looking back to him, sharing the look of confusion before looking back at Julie, "What do you mean you're tired of being bugged?"

Julie shrugged a little, "It's not a big deal... just some kids who say because I have two days I'm going to be gay too..."

Kurt gripped the edge of the bed tighter with his fist as the rage went through, while Blaine made an 'o' with his mouth in understanding. It was Blaine who responded since Kurt knew he would just get angry, "How long has this been going on?"

Again Julie shrugged, trying to convince herself it wasn't as difficult to talk about as it actually was, "Since last year... and it's not that I don't love either of you or anything... I just wanted them to stop it and since me telling them to stop it wasn't working, I thought if I kissed some boy they'd give it up."

Blaine reached out and took one of Julie's hands in his own, and she looked to him expectantly. Kurt did the same with her other hand, "Why wouldn't you talk to us about this?"

Julie looked down, "I wanted to handle it myself. I didn't want you to think I was embarrassed of you."

Kurt relaxed then, grinning to her, "Sweetheart... I kind of expect you to end up embarrassed with us as you get older, though not because we're two men, because we're your dads and it's our job to embarrass you at least a little."

She rolled her eyes knowingly and Blaine chimed in then, "Do you really think that kissing a boy is going to make them stop teasing you?"

Julie shook her head then and sighed, "Not really... but it was what I thought of. Darcy's been saying he's going to marry me since kindergarten anyhow."

Both of the boys had to stifle laughs then, and Julie wrinkled up her nose as she caught them both in the act, "Not funny."

Blaine swallowed his laughter and smiled to the girl between them, "You know you've now given him false hope by kissing him on top of everything right?"

Julie groaned and nodded, "And his lips tasted like lemon pie. Yuck."

Kurt chuckled and leaned over to draw his baby girl, which she'd always be to him, to his chest in a hug, which she eagerly returned. "Sorry daddy..."

"It's okay... Now that I understand. But this doesn't mean you can just go around kissing people!"

Blaine added onto that, "And if you're having issues with those girls, let us know so we can address it with your teachers. They shouldn't be allowed to spread hate like that and make you feel bad. Not your fault you got saddled with two dads."

Julie nodded to Blaine from where she cuddled against Kurt. He remembered how he had been able to hold her in his arms once and do this, now she wouldn't fit into his arms - all tall and long.

"Now I know Daddy would be happy to snuggle you all evening, but how about we have supper, and then I take you to spend that money that's burning a hole in your purse?"

Julie nodded eagerly and bounced off the bed and sprinted out of her room, leaving Blaine and Kurt on her bed.

"I still don't like that she's kissed a boy..." Kurt thought aloud.

"Oh sweetheart... just wait a few years and then you'll really be stressed about it." Blaine teased and prodded Kurt playfully in the side as he stood up and made for the door. "Now come on. I'm a hungry husband."

Kurt chuckled and followed after him, going to the table where the kids were all eagerly waiting for dinner. Blaine had made his delectable vegetarian lasagna which every ate enthusiastically, sharing stories of the day. When they were done, Blaine and Julie left for the store, leaving Kurt and the two littler ones to clean up and get ready for bedtime.

When Blaine and Julie returned, Audrey and George were already asleep in their beds and Kurt was reading a script on the couch. He peered over the edge of the booklet, trying to see what Blaine had allowed Julie to get. He didn't have to wait long to find out though as Julie came barrelling toward him with bright, happy eyes, "DADDY!"

Kurt set the script down and managed to catch her in his arms with a little 'oofph!'.

"Daddy! Dad took me to a comic book store! Look what I got!" Julie reached into the bag she was holding and showed Kurt the stack of comic books she had procured, Kurt looking past her and to Blaine with an arched eyebrow. Blaine grinned giddily back to Kurt.

Kurt looked down at the pile, "Who are Ghost and Phalanx...?"

Julie's eyes bugged out and Blaine blurted out, "What?!"

"I honestly don't know..." Kurt looked between them both curiously.

"Only the best superheroes ever daddy... ohmygosh... I can't believe you don't know that. Now I am really embarrassed about you!" Julie said aghast.

Kurt just laughed and Blaine came to sit with them. Blaine and Julie explained the finer points of the comic series and how it was going to be adapted into a major motion picture. Kurt was happy to see Julie excited over something more her age, and he could tell Blaine was happy to have someone else in the house who shared his appreciation for superheroes.

"Look daddy! You could totally be Ghost if you weren't all old!" Julie announced, holding up a page of the comic beside Kurt's head for a comparison. Blaine and Julie laughed, Kurt groaned, and all was alright again.

Really, if you haven't read the amazing fic All The Other Ghosts or it's sequel-in-progress by rainjoy then I don't know what's wrong with you. BEST. FIC. EVER.