"Blaine! Don't stay out all day! Be back for lunch and make sure you wear sun screen!" called his mother as he sped out the front door if their house down on the beach. Blaine wasn't really listening and instead ran for the sand. He hadn't been on the beach in so many years and was dying to be out in the sea swimming or making sandcastles. He sped off with his little beach backpack that contained his Spongebob beach towel, his bucket and spade and his sunglasses. He sped out onto the sand and immediately decided to make a massive sandcastle, complete with moat. He had just laid the foundations to his moat and was piling sand into the middle to create a mound when he heard a voice beside him.
"Wow. That sure looks like a big sandcastle." Said a boy. Blaine turned and saw a boy who looked the same age as him, if not slightly older - or maybe just taller. Blaine was always shorter than any of his classmates - who was smiling at him.
"Sure will be! Wanna help? I bet we could make it extra awesome with two pairs of hands." Blaine offered happily.
"Awesome! Sure, let me go grab my spade, I left it over with my mom," said the boy who promptly sped off along the sand to where a woman lay reading a book. She smiled at the boy who then grabbed a spade from the sand beside her and ran back over beaming broadly.
"So, what's your name?" asked Blaine as they started on the mountainous pile of sand, making it into shape.
"My name's Wes," smiled the boy, patting down a patch with his spade. "What's yours?"
"Blaine," he smiled. "I just moved back here. Apparently I lived here when I was tiny but I don't remember. Do you go to school around here?"
"Oh yeah. I go to Dalton. Like all the kids our age go there," smiled Wes.
"How old are you then? I bet we'd be in the same year,"
"I'm nine in a month," said Wes proudly. "I'll be one of the oldest in my year,"
"Same! Well, I'll be nine in six weeks but still, we'll be like, super old for our year." Blaine said excitedly.
"But I thought older people were always really tall," Wes asked curiously.
"Well so did I but I've always been a kinda short," Blaine laughed.
The boys spent almost two hours creating the perfect castle, then running to the ocean to fetch buckets of water to fill the moat, laughing and splashing each other with the water in the shallow waves. But sadly once the castle was finished Wes's mom called to him and said they had to leave for lunch. Wes said a cheery goodbye and promised to try and find him next time he was at the beach before waving goodbye. Blaine admired his and Wes's castle for a short while until the moat seemed to dry out before deciding to explore the beach some more. Blaine shouldered his beach backpack and headed for the rock pools to look for fish. He spent what felt like ages admiring a small crab he found in one of the larger pools.
"Excuse me?" called a soft nervous voice from behind Blaine. He spun on the rock he stood on and realised he'd actually ventured quite far out from the shore into a miniature cave. Behind him Blaine saw the waves lapping softly at the edge of the rocks where the water suddenly deepened, he saw the slime that stuck to the walls slightly. And also, in the deep water he saw the shape of a boy. He was in the water that reached up to just under his arms as he held onto the rocks.
"Are you Blaine?" the boy asked, letting go of the rock he held onto with one hand to push his short brown hair out of his eyes, the water plastering it slightly to his face.
"Yeah I am. How did you know?" asked Blaine. The boy could hardly be much older than Blaine, a year or two at most?
"I know everything," the boy said impressively.
"Really?" Blaine said, his jaw dropping.
"No," the boy laughed. "I just found this a moment ago and thought it might be yours," the boy held up a shiny blue watch with the words Blaine Anderson scrawled in Blaine's handwriting on the back.
"My Belle watch!" Blaine smiled, realising it wasn't on his wrist.
"What's a belle watch?" asked the boy as Blaine moved forward and the boy passed him his watch back.
"This is, silly!" Blaine said, rebuckling it onto his wrist. "It's a watch but it's special because it has Belle on it who's this princess in one of my favourite films,"
"What's a watch?" asked the boy, looking thoroughly confused.
"This is. Don't you know how to tell time?"
"No. We don't use time that much where I live. We just go by where the sun is and how bright it is."
"Where do you live then? Because that sounds fun!" Blaine said excitedly, sitting down next to where the boy gripped the rocks.
"I'm not sure I should tell you," the boy said nervously, glancing over his shoulder.
"Oh." Blaine said slightly crestfallen. "Can you tell me your name then? You know mine,"
"My name's Kurt," said the boy.
"That's a pretty name," Blaine smiled. "Its much cooler than Blaine is."
"Thank you," Kurt said, his very pale skin turning slightly pink.
"Hey Kurt, where'd you find my watch? I didn't even notice it had fallen off," Blaine asked.
"It was in the water. It nearly fell on my head," Kurt said, his tone complaining slightly.
"How did it fall on your head? I didn't see anyone swimming around these pools,"
"Because I was under the water silly."
"But... how?"
"Because I can breath underwater,"
"No!"
"Oh yes,"
"That's so cool! I've always wanted to breath underwater!" Blaine said.
"It gets better," Kurt smiled.
"How can it get better? That's like, as cool as things get!"
"Oh really?" Kurt said, smiling. He pulled himself closer to the edge of the rock before hoisting himself up and out of the water slightly, revealing a long, shiny, glimmering fin.
"Wow," Blaine breathed at the sight of it. "Okay, it really does get better,"
Kurt laughed and sat himself next to Blaine on the rock.
"You can... you can touch it if you want," Kurt said tentatively. Blaine stretched his hand out slowly and placed a hand gently on the soft scales. They felt so odd under his touch, like they were soft and silky yet still reminded him of the fish he'd caught one year in the lake near their old house, of proper fish scales.
"Are you a proper mermaid?" Blaine asked.
"What do you mean by proper? And no, I'm a merman. I'm a boy silly," Kurt said.
"Well, like. I've seen mermaids in films but I know they're not real because they're silly girls in outfits or they're drawings like Ariel. But you're like, a real life mermaid. Wait, merman. Sorry."
"You people don't know much about 'real' mermaids then. I doubt we're anything like what you think,"
"Can you tell me what you're really like then?" Blaine asked quietly.
"Maybe," Kurt teased.
"Can I, like, ask you questions about what it's like being a merman?"
"Sure. Why not?" Kurt shrugged, splashing a bit of water on his fin to keep it wet and dipping the end back in the water.
"Okay. I need to think of some good questions. Um... okay, how old are you?"
"I'm nine and a half." Kurt said. "How old are you?"
"I'm so nearly nine. It's my birthday in six weeks and I'm super excited. Momma says I can have a big party with my school friends."
"That sounds like fun. I bet you have loads of friends,"
"Not really. We only moved here yesterday. I made friends with Wes this morning though. He was really nice and he'll be in the same school as me."
"Oh, well I'm sure you'll make a load of friends when you start school then," Kurt comforted.
"I... I'm not sure. I didn't have many friends back home. People don't like me. Some of the teachers thought I was clever but nobody wanted to be friends with me..."
"But, that boy Wes liked you right? He wanted to be your friend?"
"I... I guess," Blaine sniffled, not noticing he was starting to cry.
"And I like you, I want to be your friend."
"You... you do?"
"Yeah. You seem a little odd, and a little shorter than some humans I've seen. But you're nice. You think I'm cool, and not weird for having a fin instead of your silly legs."
"My legs aren't silly! But I do wish I had a fin. That would be fun; to swim all day and not have to come home again because you could breath underwater."
"I wish you did now. I could show you all the cool places I know of."
"Aw now I really want to be a merman."
"I wonder if there's a way it would work...?"
"Don't say that either! I want to be a merman so bad now." Blaine protested.
"Sorry... I'd just really like it too." Kurt said.
A/N: I won't deny this isn't very good but I've never written kiddy klaine before and randomly decided to. the tangled bit will be in the next chapter i promise. this on't be a very long story, it was origionally a one shot but it might stretch to 4 maybe? who knows!
