Just a drabble I wrote for the lovely Sharon! :3
GLEE
"Oh my god, dad, please spare us the baby book," groaned Kurt, hiding his face in his hands. Burt was sitting next to Blaine on the couch, the baby book his mother had put together on the coffee table. They had gotten to the kindergardern years and Kurt wanted to die.
"But you're so cute," said Blaine, looking over to him with a grin. "Come on, sit down - I promise to show you embarrassing photos my childhood next time we're at my house."
"You better," grumbled Kurt, finally sitting down on Blaine's other side.
"This was an outfit that Kurt drew for his mom," said Burt, turning the page and pointing to crudely drawn woman with a sparkly dress on a sheet of construction paper.
"I had impeccable taste, even then," said Kurt. Blaine and Burt laughed.
For the next ten minutes they turned through all of Kurt's kindergarden year, finally getting into 1st grade. Kurt wrinkled his nose - he was so chubby back then - but his face softened whenever a photo of him and his mother popped up. One was them at the zoo, standing in front of monkeys.
"Lizzie chaperoned for the school fieldtrip to the zoo in Columbus," said Burt, pointing at the photo. "She said it was crazy - it was school day, so it was full of little kids." Burt smiled fondly at the memory.
"It was fun," said Kurt. He remembered that he didn't even spend most of the day with his class, like he was suppose to. Instead he stuck to his mom. He also remembered hanging out with another boy, but he hadn't been someone in his class. Kurt frowned. Who was he…?
Burt turned the page and a photo of the boy he was thinking about appeared. It was of the two of them, sitting on a bench and grinning up at the camera over ice cream cones. The boy was tiny, around Kurt's size at that age, with curly black hair. "I remember him," laughed Kurt. "Oh - he got separated from his class or something. Mom found him tearing up and bought him ice cream. We hung out for a few hours until we found his class and -"
"- she bought me a stuffed lion because the mane reminded her of my hair," said Blaine, softly.
Kurt paused, his mouth hanging open. He had been about to say that exactly. He remembered his mom in the gift shop. Kurt had gotten a cheetah and the boy with them a lion.
"What?" said Kurt, turning to look at Blaine with wide eyes, but even as he said it, he began to remember the day more clearly.
"When I was eight I went to that zoo with my school, too," said Blaine quickly. "But I got distracted by the monkeys and my group went on without me. I was about to start bawling, walking around looking for them, when a woman came up to me and asked me if I was lost - that's me. In that photo." Blaine let out a shaky breath.
"Oh my god," said Kurt. "But that means - we - back then." Kurt raised his hand to cover his mouth.
"We did," Blaine giggled.
"Can someone tell me what's going on?" asked Burt, looking back and forth at them.
Kurt and Blaine shared a look. "You go ahead," said Blaine quietly. Kurt turned to his dad and took a deep breath.
"Baby, you stay here for a second," said his mommy, pointing to the bench. "I'll be right back." Kurt nodded and sat on the bench, feet dangling above the ground. A few minutes later his mommy walked back over to him, holding another boy's hand.
He was a little shorter than Kurt with pretty hair that looked like a piggy's tail. Only not pink. It was really dark. His eyes were red, like Kurt's got when he'd been crying.
"Kurt, Blaine here got lost from his group," said his mommy. "He's going to stay with us until we can find them, ok?" Kurt nodded up and down. "You two stay here. I'm going to get some ice cream cones." She patted the boy's head once and smiled before walking a few feet away to the ice cream stand that Kurt had pointed to earlier.
"I'm Kurt," he said proudly. "That's my mommy. What's you're name again?"
"Blaine," the boy sniffled.
"You have pretty hair, Blaine," said Kurt. Blaine offered him a small smile. "We'll find your class. My mom can do anything."
"Thanks, Kurt," said Blaine.
Kurt's mommy brought them both a vanilla cone, smiling. When they were eating it, she pulled the camera out of her purse and told them to smile. Blaine smiled a lot bigger this time, revealing a missing tooth on the top row. He had a really nice smile.
"Okay, you monkeys," teased Kurt's mommy. "We're going to work our way back to the front of the zoo so we can tell some people that Blaine is missing from his group. But we still have the big cats to see." Kurt bounced up in excitement.
"The big cats are so cool," he said, latching on to his mommy's hand. He held out his hand to Blaine. "Here, hold my hand. That way you can't get lost again."
"Okay," said Blaine, almost shyly, holding onto Kurt's hand. They went to the lions first, looking into the cages with "wooos" and "awwes".
"They have hair like yours, sweetie," said Kurt's mommy, patting Blaine on the head again. Blaine giggled and nodded.
"Kurt," said Blaine as they looked at a sleeping lion. "Why aren't you with your class?"
"They're all mean to me," said Kurt. "They don't want to be friends with me. But that's ok. I'm having a lot more fun with my mommy. And you too."
Blaine smiled at him. "I like it too."
After they looked at all the big cats, they arrived at a gift shop. Kurt pulled his mommy in, asking for a stuffed cat. Blaine looked really surprised when his mommy put a stuffed lion in his hands. "He looks like you," she said with a laugh.
"Thank you ma'am," said Blaine quietly.
After the gift shop, Blaine and Kurt sat on a bench in an office for ten minutes when Kurt's mommy talked to a man that looked a police officer. They played with their stuffed animals, making the cat noises. Blaine even knew the words to "Circle of Life" from the Lion King and pretended that his lion was Simba.
But soon there was a tall woman walking over to them. It was Blaine's teacher and she looked relieved.
"Thank you so much, Mrs. Hummel. I was so worried," she said, looking at Blaine.
"It's no problem. It was very polite," said Kurt's mommy.
"Ok, Blaine, we have to go to the bus now," said his teacher, holding out her hand.
Blaine looked at Kurt and his mommy. "Thank you," he said, shyly again. "I had a lot of fun with you."
"You're welcome, sweetie," said Kurt's mommy. Then Kurt rushed forward and hugged Blaine tightly (he sort of wanted to touch Blaine's curls).
"You're really nice," said Kurt when they separated.
"You are too," Blaine said. He took his teacher's hand and waved at Kurt. "Bye."
During the drive back home, Kurt talked about his new friend. It didn't really occur to him until much later that he wouldn't get to see him again.
Burt blinked a few times in confusion after Kurt's story. Blaine and Kurt's hands were joined and they were grinning at each other.
"I can't believe that was you," whispered Kurt. "You were one of the first boys my age that was actually nice to me."
"I still have that lion," laughed Blaine, squeezing Kurt's hand. "My mom couldn't get me to part with it when I was little. She finally had to steal it from me in my sleep to wash it." Blaine leaned forward to rest his forehead on Kurt's. "So that day, at Dalton, it wasn't the first day we met."
"Not be a long shot," chuckled Kurt. "But your hair - no wonder I didn't recognize you."
"Obviously I still liked holing your hand - it was the first thing I did," said Blaine in a low voice.
Kurt couldn't help it, right then. It didn't matter that his dad was sitting right next to him - Kurt leaned forward and kissed Blaine. When the parted, Kurt laughed and reached up to wipe a few tears away (very much happy).
Blaine looked back at the photo of both of them, grinning. Then he looked at another photo of Kurt and his mom. His smile turned bittersweet. "I got to met your mom," he said softly. "I always wanted to meet her, after the way you talk about her, and it turns out I did."
Burt reached out and squeezed Blaine's shoulder as Kurt teared up more, putting his head on his other shoulder. "And I think she approved of you," said Kurt softly, remembering how nice his mom had been to Blaine. "She basically set us up."
"Basically," laughed Blaine.
The three of them didn't speak for a few long minutes, just staring down at the photo of Kurt and Blaine at 8 years old. The photo that Blaine would ask for a copy of. The photo that would go in Kurt's senior baby ad at the back of the Thunderclap that year. The photo that would be framed and put on the mantle of Kurt and Blaine's first apartment together. The photo that would even be used on their wedding invitations in 7 years.
They didn't say anything, because it was an unspoken agreement that maybe, just maybe, Kurt and Blaine had always been 'meant to be'.