2034

'And that's when the misery started.' Burt joked , Kurt and Blaine just having finished their story about Ava's birth.

'Wow, thanks grandpa.' Ava shrugged.

'Ha, it's not exactly like you were an accident Ava. But Dad is right, having kids, it's not easy. We were involved in the last part of your mother's pregnancy, but we didn't carry you for nine months. And then you were there, and we had lots to figure out.'

'Oh even when you carry them for nine months, it's not easy. It's scary.' Rachel added.

2022

'Who's that for?' Blaine asked as Kurt put the toy in the basket hanging from his elbow.

'Eli.' Kurt answered, rolling his eyes as if that should have been the most obvious thing in the world. 'He likes elephants.'

'He's only one, he likes every stuffed animal. Besides he likes anything you touched. He loves you. The moment the kid learns how to use scissors, safely, he'll be making you 'favorite uncle' awards.'

'Do I detect a little jealousy?' Kurt joked. He was sure Blaine still remembered the time where he had asked Kurt that exact same question.

'Nope. Cause Barbra likes me better.'

''True, those curls of yours have a certain effect on little girls.' Kurt replied as he softly stroked Ava's cheek. She had fallen asleep in the carrier on Blaine's stomach. 'You better be careful when she starts grabbing for them.'

'Yeah, cause if she's anything like you, she's a puller!'

'Blaine!'

'Sttt, you'll wake her.' He turned towards his daughter and whispered: 'Bad Daddy, bad Daddy.' He looked back up at his husband: 'But, I was trying to make a point, wasn't I?'

'I don't know.' Kurt played innocent, 'Were you?'

'Yes.' Blaine faked a stern look and Kurt wondered if he ever looked at his students like that. They would never listen to him if he did. He looked far too adorable. Sometimes Kurt wanted to be in one of Blaine's classes, just for once. To see if his students respected him and if he got them to actually like what they were learning. He bet Blaine did, when somebody talked with so much passion you just had to listen. And he was pretty sure Blaine was one of the fun teachers, how could he not be? He was ridiculous. And he was always there, there was nothing he wouldn't do for his students.

Blaine waved the crumpled paper he had fished out of his pocket in front of Kurt's face. 'See, Eli's already crossed out. We've already gotten him something.'

'Yep, I've got a super cute sweater I stumbled upon couple of weeks ago at home. But that's so practical, and this is so cute!'

He took the stuffed animal out of his basket and held it up for Blaine. 'See, he looks a bit like Babar.' He started moving the toy's head, mimicking the elephant talking to Blaine. 'I'm cute! Don't you think I'm cute, strange man? Do you, do you?'

' You're very silly.' Blaine answered the animal.

'Well, he's coming with us.' Kurt said with a quick nod and put the elephant back in his basket.

'Don't forget to give him to Eli then.' Blaine teased as they continued browsing through the toy shop. You'd expect it to be filled to the brim, this close to Christmas but Kurt loved this shop, exactly because it was a bit off the beaten track. As much as a shop in Soho could be of course. He would always prefer this cute little toy shop over Toys 'R Us. He was in Times Square enough for work, he wasn't shopping there too. He was a New Yorker now, not a tourist.

At this place, they still had wooden toys, rag dolls and Kurt's absolute favorite, tea time sets. He loved it here, so simple but full of imagination, ready to be explored. It was impossible for him to leave the store without buying his daughter, niece or nephew something and he sure couldn't walk past it without jumping in for a quick peek.

'Who are we here for again?' Blaine asked as he put back the foam sword he'd been cutting air with. Kurt remained silent for a couple of seconds because his husband, who won several fencing tournaments in his youth, had just been fighting an imaginary enemy while carrying their daughter on his stomach and holding some bags in his other hand. It was an image he would cherish.

'Barbra.' he said when Blaine nudged his side to shake him from his thoughts. ' They have a doll here that's wearing a dress that really resembles the one I made for her.'

'Aw that's cute. I know she's going to love that dress, by the way. And Rachel's going to adore it.'

'You know it. I hope they still have that doll. I should have just bought it when I saw it.'

'I'm surprised you didn't.'

'Hey! Ava's still too little to play with dolls. I do have some restraint, you know.'

'Some.'

Kurt rolled his eyes at Blaine and took the doll they had been talking about from the shelf. 'Come on, let's go check out. We still have other gifts to buy.'

'I know.' Blaine sighed, thinking of the list is his pocket.

'Last shop, I promise.'

'Don't make promises you can't keep.' Blaine tried to make it sound like he was joking, but his voice was so weary that he didn't fool anyone.

'Hey, what's wrong?' Kurt took a step back and closed the shop's door again.

'Nothing. Let's just get this done.'

'Blaine, don't 'nothing' me. I know you better than that.' Kurt cocked his eyebrow.

'It's not something I want to discuss on the street. Come on, Rachel's the only one we haven't gotten anything for yet. And this looks like a store for her.' He nodded towards the vintage shop they were standing in front of. 'We'll talk when we get home and we've put this little one in bed.' He adjusted Ava's hat.

'Okay then. I'll make it quick. I promise.' Kurt added stress to his last words, he did mean them.

'So, what did you want to talk about?' Kurt asked Blaine, who was emptying the bags on their dining table, as soon as he walked out of Ava's nursery.

'Let's sit down.' They both walked towards the sofa and plopped down next to each other.

'Don't be mad at me, please.' Blaine angled his body towards his husband and he put his hand on Kurt's knee. 'But I really really don't want us to become stereotypical. Do you know what people watching us might have thought? Me following you around, carrying the bags and our daughter. Dragged along for the Christmas shopping.'

Kurt needed a second, he wasn't sure exactly what Blaine was trying to say, but he was pretty sure it wasn't meant as a compliment to him.

'I thought you liked shopping.' Kurt said, eying the hand on his knee, not wanting to look at Blaine. He was confused and that was not something he wanted his husband to notice.

'I do, just not an entire day. I didn't shop, I nodded when you asked me something. And not when the shops and streets are busier than ever. Do you know how many people come to New York for Christmas?'

'As a matter of fact, I do. I've been living here for ten years now.' Kurt got up from his seat, Blaine's hand sliding from his knee. 'And I'm sorry I haven't been able to go shopping earlier, like I used to. I have a daughter now, you know!'

'You have a daughter? WE have a daughter!'

'Well if you're so scared of us becoming stereotypical, why are you never here then?'

'Well, I'm sorry the school didn't give me more time off. You're not in a musical right now, so we both decided it wasn't that bad. Didn't we?' Blaine defended himself, as he got to his feet. It had something dramatic to it, the way they were shouting, the sofa in between them.

'I could have had a musical! I turned it down.'

'You never told me that.' Blaine was too angry to even be shocked that Kurt would keep something like that from him.

'We've already talked about me staying home with Ava enough. Yeah it gets though sometimes but what was I supposed to do? We're not putting Ava in daycare, she's not even one yet.'

'We could have figured something out. I never wanted you to give up your dream.'

'I didn't, I chose to follow a more important one. OUR dream, our family. And now you're mad for us looking like one. Do you even want this?'

In her room, little Ava started crying. Kurt turned away from Blaine before he had answered the question and went to comfort his little girl. His husband was still standing next to the sofa when he walked through the living room with his daughter in his arms. He stomped the bedroom door with his foot, closing it with a loud bang.

The few times he came out of the room during the rest of the evening, to get a bottle or a toy for Ava, he completely ignored Blaine. Nothing good was going to come out of them talking tonight anyway, hard headed as they both were.

Blaine only joined Kurt in the bedroom when he was sure he would be sleeping. He slid under the covers very carefully not to wake his sleeping husband. He knew Kurt wouldn't make him sleep on the sofa but he didn't exactly want to be on the receiving end of one of Kurt's death glares either.

'Morning.'

'How smart of you to leave out the 'good'.' Kurt said as he walked into their kitchen, to find Blaine at their breakfast bar, set for two.

'Do you want to talk?' Blaine asked as Kurt sat down opposite of him and started fiddling with his croissant.

'Sure seems like a good idea, doesn't it?'

'It does. I've called Emily. She'll watch Ava for us today, so we can have some time to ourselves. I've already filled her bag: food, diapers, new set of clothes. She's still sleeping though, so we still need to dress her.'

'I know she's still sleeping. I would never come in here before checking up on her.'

' I know.'

They finished their breakfast in silence. When Ava started crying, Blaine went to get her and he returned to find Kurt standing in the living room, a set of clothes for their girl in his hands. He took the clothes from Kurt and dressed Ava while Kurt got dressed himself.

'Why couldn't we talk at home?' Kurt asked as he pulled out a chair.

'Being in a public place stops us from yelling at each other.' Blaine sat down too. 'Besides, we have something with coffee shops.'

'We do.' Kurt smiled weakly. It was only a tiny one, but it was the first one since last night, so Blaine couldn't help but smile too.

'Let me be very clear. I do want this. I want you. I want Ava. And I want us to be together. I just don't know if we're doing this right.' Blaine reached for Kurt's hand across the table and gently stroked it with his thumb.

'And you think I have clue what I'm doing?'

'I kinda hoped so. But yesterday, I felt like a typical husband, dragged along by his wife to tell her whether or not her butt looked big in that skirt. And that made me realize that maybe you don't know either, and where are we then?' Blaine looked down, pretty close to despair.

'But through all the glory, the scary and the hype, I swear to god I'll punch the next person who calls me a stereotype. I'm so thankful to have found a partner as talented as me, and forever we shall be. Remember that? It still counts. I'm going to have to punch you, cause I am not your wife.'

'I didn't mean it that way, you know that. It was just a way of putting it.' Blaine moved his hand through the air as if that would make things clearer. It didn't, it just expressed how confused he was himself.

'Well, never put it that way again then, and let me finish. I know you're afraid of the stereotypes. We both are. You should know that. But I didn't decide to stay home for Ava, because I'm the 'more female one' out of the two of us. What kind of shit is that? Because I like clothes?' Kurt almost spat out his words. 'I stayed home because I could.'

'I know, but I don't want you to feel like you had to, because I wanted you to. I just don't want us to fall into any patterns.' Blaine slowly realized this was pretty much entirely his fault. Perhaps, if he was so afraid of people making assumptions, he shouldn't make any himself.

'I don't. But I do wish you'd help out a bit more. I feel like I'm doing this all by myself sometimes. And we're going to fall into patterns Blaine. We're getting older. We're organizing a family here, that's how it works. You should know I would never be pushed into anything, never. Who cares what they think, let them think, let them assume. They don't know us, in fact, they know shit.'

'I love you.'

'What?'

'I love you. I'm head over heels in love with you. And I should just shut up and let you do all the talking.' Blaine leaned back in his chair.

'I love you too, but no. You shouldn't shut up. You should talk to me. Why didn't you say something yesterday? Why didn't you tell me that you were tired of looking for presents? We could have had a coffee break. Or something.'

'I don't know, Kurt. I messed up, okay?'

'Don't we all?' Kurt said, he didn't want Blaine to become defensive again.

'This is not going to be our last talk on the topic is it?' Blaine sighed.

'It wasn't our first and it won't be our last. This parenting thing is hard. I don't know if we'll ever figure it out. But, I'm done talking about this for now. It's ten fifteen, let's go do something fun. How long has it been since we actually had the chance to spend the entire day together, just the two of us?' Kurt couldn't even remember the last time he'd had some time to himself.

'My birthday, but we were busy all day for the party that evening, so that doesn't count. The last time before that was when your parents were here for that convention, and Carole took Ava off our hands for the evening. 3 months and five days ago. We went to dinner at Charlie's.'

'You are amazing.' Kurt was genuinely surprised Blaine kept track of things like that.

'Thank you. You taught me well. Do you want to go shopping?'

'Are you kidding me? After all of this?' Kurt raised his eyebrow

'After all of this.'

They held hands as they left Saks, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen playing softly in the background. Every store seemed to have the same playlist around these days. They decided they would walk down to Central Park, grab a coffee and do some window shopping on their way over. Central Park was amazing in every season, but lately they hadn't had time for 'just a walk' anymore.

'See, this is what Christmas shopping in New York is supposed to be about.' Blaine said as he twirled Kurt around and pulled him close. They shuffled in rounds a bit, as if they were slow dancing to the sounds of the city. It could have been the end scene of a romantic movie, dancing in the middle of the sidewalk, as the snow gently covered the city, the Christmas lights matching the sparkles in their eyes.

'Blaine, people are starting to look.'

'Who cares what they think?' Blaine cocked his eyebrow. 'Besides, they're just pissed that they have to walk around us. We're blocking their way to the perfect Christmas gift. Oh, and we're in front of St Patrick's Cathedral, while we're obviously sinners.'

'What-'

Kurt's sentence was cut off because Blaine kissed him full on the mouth. Kurt let go off Blaine's hand and linked both his hands on his husband's back. They deepened their kiss and a teenage girl that walked past whistled. Blaine chuckled so hard he broke the kiss.

'You know, this is a lot easier to do when Ava isn't trapped between us.'

'What-'

'This.' Kurt grabbed both sides of Blaine's head and kissed him again. Blaine whimpered when Kurt let go, although it had just been a sweet kiss on the lips.

'I love her, you know.'

'Me too. Who would have thought we'd ever love a girl so much?'

'I just never thought I'd ever love anybody as much as I love you.' Blaine said before he nuzzled himself against Kurt, his head fitting perfectly between his shoulder and neck.

2034

Kurt and Blaine didn't tell everybody exactly what they had fought about, that was far too private. They focused on the making up part, wanting to set a good example for the kids. They talked about how important it is to do things together, instead of one partner just following the other around. And that you have to make time for each other, even if it's for something silly like dancing in the street or taking a walk in the park.

'Especially if it's something silly.' Kurt smiled at Blaine.

'Because most of the time, the silly things aren't that silly at all.' Blaine concluded.