"Aren't you scared you're going to fall and ruin your jeans?" a soft voice pulled Blaine back to reality and he opened his eyes to meet a pair of wide nervous indigo eyes. A strange feeling immediately coursed through him when he locked eyes with the upside down figure. Well, technically the boy standing before him wasn't upside down, it was he who was hanging upside down on the monkey bars with his legs locked between the bars. Blaine smiled big and bright insentiently and shook his head.

"No this is fun. Do you want to try? I could teach you." The boy shook his head immediately and regarded him with cautious eyes.

"Your face is really red" the boy breathed through pursed lips as if he hadn't meant to say it but he was thinking it so loud that he couldn't' stop himself. Blaine giggled and reached up to grab the bar above his head. He unhooked his legs and curled them through his arms then flipped down to the ground.

Blaine looked over at the boy and blushed. His stomach flipped as he realized the boy was seemingly impressed by his display if his gaping mouth was any indication. Blaine couldn't help but like the boy. He was dressed so nicely. His bow tie was a bright blue that brought out his eyes and his button down was tucked neatly into his jeans. He was also wearing the kind of shoes Blaine's mother forced him to wear every Sunday for church, which confused him because who wanted to wear those kind of shoes? But on him it was perfect.

Blaine thought this boy was pretty. He wasn't sure if that was something that boys could be, but he was. He was pretty.

"My name is Kurt." The boy said nervously shifting from foot to foot. Blaine liked that name. It fit nicely like the last puzzle piece.

Blaine reached out and shook Kurt's hand "I like your name. My name is Blaine"

Kurt lit up and smiled brightly. His dimples showed and it made him look really cute. Blaine decided he liked making Kurt smile so he wanted to do that more often.

"Do you want to sit with me while I eat my lunch?" Kurt asked holding up his Power Rangers lunch box as if to specify what he was talking about. Blaine nodded and grabbed Kurt's hand agagin. He ignored the rush he felt when their hands linked firmly and pulled Kurt over to the bench on the outside of the playground.

The two boys sat criss-crossed on the bench facing each other with the lunch box in between them. It hadn't even occurred to them that they hadn't let go of each other's hand.

Blaine smiled as he watched Kurt struggle to open his lunch box one handed. They wouldn't let go of each other's hand so Blaine used his free hand to hold the box still as Kurt unhooked the hinge and opened up the metal container

"You're lunch box is really neat. I wish I had one like that."

"Thank you" Kurt blushed "My favorite is Kimberly Hart."

Blaine didn't know very many boys that liked the pink power ranger and so he decided Kurt was special. He was going to be Blaine's best friend.

"Really?"

Kurt smiled and nodded. "Yeah, she has fabulous hair like me." He brushed the loose strand of hair on his forehead back behind his ears instinctively then picked up his sandwich and bit into it.

"Aren't you going to eat Blainey?" Blaine would have blushed at Kurt's new nickname for him but his stomach twisted and he suddenly felt anxious. He pulled his knees up against his chest and took his hand back so that he could wrap his arms around his legs protectively.

"M-m-my, my br-br-bother s-s -said he needed my lunch money today." Blaine wanted to punch himself. He hated that he stuttered when he felt like this. He could feel the pressure of hot tears building behind his eyes and the lump growing in his throat. Kurt was going to laugh at him. He was going to call him a freak and runaway because he couldn't even speaklike baby and on top of that he was about to cry.

He gasped as he felt a soft hand grab his and place half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in it.

"You can have some of mine" Kurt whispered softly bending sideways in search of Blaine's eyes. When their eyes met Kurt smiled kindly and a warmth spread through Blaine that he hand only ever felt on the rare occasions that his mom and dad tucked him in at night, or on even more rare occasions that Coop hugged him or let him sleep in his room because of the storm. Kurt wasn't running, he wasn't laughing, and he wasn't calling him names or hitting him to make him speak right. He was holding his hand again and he was smiling at him as if to reassure him that it was okay.

Kurt hadn't even brought up Blaine's stutter. Slowly but surely Blaine felt the tension in his body dissipate and it was as if it never even happened. They continued to laugh and tell stories until the bell rang for them to go back to class.

Blaine found out that Kurt was a second grader and was worried that Kurt wouldn't want to play with him anymore when he found out that Blaine was only a first grader. His stutter came back with a vengeance and he blushed from the head to toe.

"It doesn't matter to me Blainey. I like you. We're going to be best friends. See here." He removed his bow tie and hooked it onto Blaine's shirt. "You can even have my bow tie. Best friends borrow stuff all the time."

He was going to be best friends with a second grader, and he was nicest boy Blaine had ever met.

Best friends they became. Every recess they sat at their bench and sometimes Blaine even convinced Kurt to sit on the first branch of the tree in the playground as they ate their lunch together. Sometimes Blaine's brother would need his lunch money and Blaine would have to share with Kurt, but that was okay. Kurt just learned to bring extra food just in case.

There was two weeks when Blaine had no one to play with because Kurt was absent. He got picked on by the other kids more now that he didn't have Kurt with him and his stutter had worsened. When Kurt returned he was angry with him, for leaving him.

He was going to yell at Kurt at recess, but when he saw the boy sitting on their bench with his arms wrapped around his legs looking lost and filled with more sorrow than an eight year old could bare Blaine's heart clenched. Before he knew it he was running over to his friend and wrapping his arms around him. He didn't know what made him do it, but he knew it was what Kurt needed.

Kurt's whole body sagged as he exhaled and began to cry. That was the day Blaine learned the most about Kurt's mother. Blaine didn't understand very many things, and it seemed Kurt didn't either, but he knew in that moment that they needed each other, and that they would always have each other.