Disclaimer: Glee belongs to Ryan Murphy and Fox, not me.

Blaine bit back a sigh as the bell above the flower shop door chimed for the millionth time. He wasn't supposed to be stuck for the summer at his mother's flower shop in middle-of-nowhere, Ohio; he was supposed to be promoting his new album in New York City. But clearly fate had different plans.

Make the best of it, Anderson, he told himself sternly as he straightened up behind the counter and smiled at the patrons. "Hi, can I help you?" he said.

A tall lanky man in a red polo shirt grinned sheepishly at him. "Uh, yeah, I think so," he said. "I, uh…"

A tiny blond-haired boy popped out from behind him. "He forgot his anna-sery," he announced in a cheerful piping voice.

"Thanks for that, Gabriel," the man said dryly. He took the little boy's hand and tugged him closer. "Yeah, I managed to forget my anniversary."

"Ah," Blaine grinned.

The little boy patted the man's hand. "It's okay, Uncle Finn," he said. "I won't tell Aunt Lucy on you."

"Oh, no, you will," Finn said. "We all know you can't keep secrets."

Blaine leaned on the counter. "So are you looking for any kind of flowers in particular, or just the classic red roses?" he asked. "You can't go wrong with those."

"That's what I got here when I forgot our anniversary last year," Finn said. "I was trying to remember what kind of flowers she had at our wedding. They were kind of…I don't know. Fluffy? They smelled nice."

"Do you remember what color they were?" Blaine asked, smiling. "Fluffy and nice-smelling describes a lot of flowers."

Gabriel tugged on Finn's hand and pointed at a pot of brilliant orange marigolds. "Uncle Finn, get those!" he said. He escaped the grip on his hand and buried his nose in the blossoms, then immediately drew back. "Ew! They smell like socks."

Blaine laughed as the child wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, those don't smell very pretty, do they?" he said.

Gabriel shook his head emphatically. "Don't get those, Uncle Finn," he said.

"Don't get the flowers that smell like socks. I can handle that," Finn said, beckoning to the little boy, who zipped back over to him and grabbed his big hand. "My wife's flowers were pink, I remember that. Big fluffy pink things. That smelled good."

Blaine walked out from behind the counter. "Well, let's see what we can find," he said.

A small hand grabbed onto his fingers and he looked down to see little Gabriel holding his hand. "I wanna help find things," he announced.

"All right, you can be my helper," Blaine said. He picked up a pink hyacinth and held it out to Finn. "Were these the flowers?"

Finn scrutinized the petals. "I don't know," he said warily. "Maybe?"

Blaine handed the flower to Gabriel. "Hold that as careful as you can, okay?" he said. Gabriel nodded solemnly.

The little boy was holding a small handful of different pink fluffy flowers before Finn recognized his wife's wedding flowers. Blaine arranged a lovely bouquet of peonies in a round glass vase and tied a white sheer ribbon around it, and found himself wishing for once that he had inherited his mother's knack for making bows look nice.

"Thank you so much," Finn said in relief as he took the vase. "She's going to love it."

"No problem," Blaine said. "Have a nice day."

He turned back to close the cash register, but Gabriel raised himself up on his tiptoes and patted his hand on the counter. "Mr. Flower Man!" he called.

"Florist, Gabe," Finn reminded him.

Gabriel held out his hand. "I would like one flower please, Mr. Florist Man," he said.

Blaine laughed. "Why do you want a flower?" he asked.

Gabriel smiled, a dimple popping in his cheek. "For my daddy!" he said.

"You want to give one to your daddy and not your mommy?" Blaine said.

"I don't have a mommy, I just got a daddy," Gabriel said, swinging on the counter. "And I wanna get him a flower."

Blaine hesitated, the back of his neck itching a little. Good job, Anderson. of course you would stick your foot in your mouth like that, he thought. "Sure," he said, smiling at the child. "What kind of flower do you think your daddy would like?"

Gabriel swiveled around and pointed at a silver tub full of white gardenias. "That one!" he said. "It smells pretty."

"That's a good choice," Blaine said. He picked out the nicest-looking bloom in the bunch and handed it to Gabriel. "Be very gentle with it, all right?"

Gabriel nodded, staring at the flower with wide blue eyes as he balanced the stem on his palms. "Thanks so much for all your help," Finn said. He patted the little boy's back. "Say thank you, Gabriel."

"Thank you, Mr. Flower Man," Gabriel said, beaming an angelic smile at him.

"He's a flori- oh, never mind," Finn said. "Let's go, bud."

The bells chimed again as they left, and Gabriel twisted around to wave one last time, still smiling brightly. Blaine waved back, grinning to himself. Maybe helping in his mom's flower shop wasn't all bad. Sometimes it could even be a little fun.

Still, though, he was a little mad that fate decided that he wasn't meant to be a recording artist. What was going to be better than that?

Author's Notes:

Hurray! I'm just a bit behind, but here's the first chapter of my Klaine reversebang!

I know I've been AWOL for quite a while, so here's a bit of an update! Two months ago I got the call from Disney and moved down to Orlando. I'm now a flight attendant at Star Tours at Disney's Hollywood Studios! And even better, I'm on the list to get cross-trained at the Great Movie Ride I have a move-in date set for an absolutely beautiful apartment, and my darling husband and my sweet kitty will be coming down from Nashville next month. I've been separated from them for two months now- only one month to go!

One of my favorite things that has happened since I started at Disney is that I've gotten to meet two readers! I met sweet Megan, who I got to chat with for about a minute, and a lovely lady that I sadly didn't get a chance to talk to, but in both cases my day was completely brightened! So if you're at Disney's Hollywood Studios and run into a short redhead with a nametag that says "Caitlin from Nashville, TN" you should come and say hi!

And now I'm going to keep working on my story! :D I hope you like it!