A/N: I got this idea when I was sitting in church this morning, bored out of mind. So when I got home, I raced to my laptop to start typing. I wanted to post this before Rachel's dads were introduced on the show, or else I'd probably have to do some serious rewriting. This is going to be in 3 parts, but since I want to get this all out before the V-day ep, the second part should be uploaded tonight and the third tomorrow. Enjoy!

Unconditional

"Daddy!" the shrill voice of young Rachel Berry called as she opened the door. 12:15 on the dot. Rachel was an "early bird" kindergartener, meaning she went the first half of the day, nine to noon, as opposed to the "late bears" who went from noon to three.

Leroy put down his magazine and walked out of the living room to greet his kindergarten-aged daughter at the door, where she was standing with… another person. This surprised Leroy – Rachel didn't usually bring home friends. Mostly because Rachel didn't really have any friends.

"Hello, sweetie," he greeted, taking her bright pink Strawberry Shortcake backpack from her. "Who is this?"

She gestured grandly to the boy, whom Leroy noticed was wearing pristine white pants, a short-sleeve lavender button-down shirt with flowery dark purple embroidery on the bottom right side, and a spotted bowtie. He had his white coat – it sort of looked like it had come from the girls' section of the clothing store, but then, so did his shirt – folded neatly and hanging over his Power Rangers backpack. The boy's mom was clearly a classy dresser, and made sure her son was too. He had pale skin, big, innocent blue-green-gray eyes, and not a light brown hair was out of place.

"This is my new friend," Leroy's daughter announced with obvious pride. "His name is Kurt and he was in my walking group," the kindergarteners had walking groups to and from school, each group supervised by a middle-schooler who was basically looking to get out of classes, "and I asked him if he wanted to come over and he said he had to ask his mommy first, so I told him he could call her from here! Is that okay?"

Leroy smiled – anything to get Rachel some companions. As much as she claimed she wasn't lonely, he knew she was as excited as he was about the possibility of her making a new friend. "Of course." He led them inside and took Kurt's backpack for him as well, noting that the tag had his first name and a phone number written neatly on it in bright pink Sharpie. "Is this your mommy's number, Kurt?"

The boy nodded. "But I know my number in my heart," he said in a voice that was quite possibly higher than Rachel's, pointing at his chest like that was wear the number was stored. Leroy showed him to the phone and listened as apparently someone on the other end picked up.

"Hi, Mama!" Kurt trilled happily. "No, I'm okay. I'm at a friend's house, Mama…. Rachel Berry." The boy had an adorable lisp, Leroy noted. "Uh-huh. I know! Yeah, okay!" He held the phone up to Leroy. "Mama wants to talk to you, Mr. Rachel's daddy!"

"Hello?" Leroy said as soon as he got the phone. "Is this Kurt's mother?"

"Please, call me Liz – no need to be so formal. I remember you, Leo."

Leroy's eyebrows rose of their own accord. Elizabeth Marcotte. They had been rather close in high school, or as close as the head Cheerio and the school's bullied gay kid (well, he was never officially out, but most people assumed) could be. She was very kind, and always did her best to put a stop to any bullying she saw. Plus she had a beautiful singing voice and had been the lead female soloist in their school's show choir. He had been the 2nd lead male soloist, so sometimes they had little duets together.

"Is it okay if Kurt plays with Rachel over at your house?" she asked. "I hope he didn't just invite himself over. I'm trying to raise him with manners."

Leroy laughed. "No, I'm pretty sure Rachel almost dragged him here. And he's no trouble. Truthfully I'm just glad Rachel is making friends now."

Liz sighed. "You, too, huh? I'm glad Kurtie's branching out for once. He prefers sitting alone with a book or our piano to interacting with kids his age. He says the boys are too messy and don't understand even basic tea party etiquette."

Leroy snorted. "Rachel says the girls are too uncultured to appropriately recognize and value her talent, and aren't worth her time."

This drew a laugh from Liz. "Well, call me if he's any trouble, though he's not really the sort to act out, I assure you. Dinner at our house is at six. Do you have a specific time before that you need him to leave?"

"It's a Tuesday, right?" Liz hummed in affirmation. "Then no, around six is fine. On Mondays and Wednesdays Rachel has dance and then vocal lessons at three."

"Good to know. And it seems we're both starting our children young – on Mondays and Fridays Kurt has piano and voice lessons at three, and on Wednesdays he has dance at four."

"Noted."

"Hopefully we'll have to remember that information for later play dates."

"Fingers crossed," Leroy agreed. "By the way, you certainly have Kurt dressed to the nines. Were you always that fashionable? I rarely saw you out of your Cheerios uniform."

Elizabeth laughed. "Oh, no. Kurt would never even think about trusting me with the honor of picking out his outfits. He puts his own together. He's going through a bit of a button-down-and-bowtie-combo obsession at the moment. Last fall it was pea coats. When he was three he was obsessed with tiaras and anything sparkly for the whole year. All he wanted for Christmas was a bedazzler – he still loves that thing. Though for his birthday that year he insisted that he just needed a pair of sensible heels. I've seen him eying the suspenders and penny loafers recently whenever we go shopping, so that may be next."

"Oh." Leroy blinked, before recovering. "Well he is certainly a fashionable little boy."

"Don't I know it," Liz chuckled. "I'll be there to pick him up at about 5:45. Sound good?"

"Sure."

The two said their goodbyes and Leroy wandered into the kitchen, where Kurt and Rachel were sitting at the table playing with Barbies. After a second, Leroy noticed that most of the Barbie clothes set out in from of them did not belong to Rachel, and realized they must've come from Kurt.

Leroy wondered if Liz had any… suspicions about her boy. Well, it was possible. He could just be a… bit on the feminine side, but he could also very well end up being gay. At least if he did, he would have the support of his mother. Liz was a kind woman, who was accepting of all types of people and passionately fought against their town's, and the world's, prejudices.

Leroy couldn't guess about Kurt's father. Last thing he'd known Liz had been dating Burt Hummel, the homophobic jerk who, along with his all his other idiotic jock friends, had bullied Leroy constantly throughout high school. How someone as sweet as Liz could date a brute like Hummel, he'd never know. But really, that kid didn't look anything like Burt, from what he remembered of the jock. He looked all Elizabeth. The only thing they had similar was their names. Burt and Kurt. But that could, of course, be a coincidence.

He hoped for this kid's sake that he didn't have Burt Hummel as a father. Burt wouldn't handle having a boy as feminine as Kurt very well. And if he was gay…. Leroy would really hate to see a young teenage boy living in fear of being thrown out of his own home because his homophobic father couldn't accept who he was.

"Hey, Kurt?" he spoke up from where he was preparing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and apple slices for the kids.

"Yes, Mr. Rachel's daddy?" Kurt responded, setting down his Barbie from their fashion show game and turning to face Leroy to show the man had his full attention (the boy did have impeccable manners).

"You have a pretty unique name – you don't hear it often. Is it short for anything?"

Kurt looked excited to answer the question. "Nope! It's just Kurt! Mama named me after Kurt von Trapp in the Sound of Music," he informed the man proudly. "I love that movie, and Julie Andrews has such a pretty voice – even better than my mama's! But I think Rolf is cuter than Kurt. 'Sixteen Going on Seventeen' is my favorite song in the whole wide world! My mama sings it with me all the time! But then Rolf gets mean – and I don't think I'd like it if my name was Rolf. I like my name being Kurt."

"I like it, too," Leroy agreed. Hmm, so the rhyming names were a coincidence. Lucky for him. A kid like that didn't need a guy like Burt Hummel as his dad.

Leroy smiled as the two talented kindergarteners in his kitchen launched into a rather adorable and cavity-inducing rendition of "Sixteen Going on Seventeen".

Kurt made a wonderful Liesl.

~0~0~

Leroy had called Hiram at work to let him know that their daughter had a friend over – a little boy named Kurt who acted much more like a little girl – so he wasn't surprised when he returned home to find an impeccably dressed boy dancing and singing with his daughter in the living room, both ignoring that the song in the Disney movie displayed on the screen was over and the video was back to dialogue.

The boy turned around when he heard the door shut. "Who are you, mister?" he asked in a high voice, running over, not very shy at all.

Hiram smiled. "I'm Rachel's daddy."

The boy cocked his head. "Rachel has two daddies?"

Rachel came over then, placing her hands on her hips. "Yeah, and I love them and they love each other just like a mommy and a daddy, okay?" She was immediately defensive, and the behavior twisted Hiram's heart as he thought about the teasing she had already had to face and what she was going to have to face in the future. He only hoped she wouldn't lose a new friend so soon because of her parental situation.

"I love my mama," Kurt said after some consideration. "But I love my daddy a lot, too. It'd be so cool if I had two daddies!" Rachel blinked, clearly not expecting a positive reaction, and Hiram chuckled, feeling strange mix of relief – because Kurt was fine with Rachel having two dads – and sadness – because Rachel was so surprised that someone was fine with it. Kurt scrunched his eyebrows together. "But then… who had Rachel? My mama had me – I growed in her tummy! And Mama said babies always grow in their mama's tummies. But Rachel has two daddies. Who growed Rachel in their belly if she doesn't have a mama?"

"Maybe when you're older we'll explain it to you," Hiram offered, and Kurt seemed to take that answer for the time being.

"C'mon, Kurtie!" Rachel demanded. "Let's go play dress-up! We can put on a musical!"

"I don't know if Kurt will want to play dress-up," Hiram said slowly for Kurt because he knew it was hard for other children to talk back to Rachel.

"No, I do!" Kurt protested immediately, only slightly surprising Hiram. "I like dressing up! My daddy bought me Sleeping Beauty princess shoes. They're pink and sparkly and they have little heels! They're my favorite shoes ever and I play dress up with them and my costumes all the time! But Daddy says I can't wear them to school." Here he pouted, then brightened and turned to Rachel. "Do you have pretty princess shoes?"

Rachel nodded eagerly. "And princess dresses!"

Clearly excited by the prospect, Kurt squealed, jumping up and down and clapping his hands, and the two raced upstairs, but Kurt stopped, went back downstairs to face Hiram, and said, "Bye Mr. Rachel's other daddy! It was a pleasure meeting you sir," before dashing back up the steps to join Rachel.

"Nice manners," Hiram murmured to himself.

Leroy stuck his head out from the den, clearly having heard the whole exchange, including Kurt's excitement over princess clothes, and simply said, "And that is what I meant when I said I had my suspicions about him."